Generally there are 2 schools of COIN which are hearts and minds and the Roman approach (raze and salt the earth). You're either looking to control the population that would support insurgents or make it impossible for insurgents to hold land. Definitely wanna check out David Galula for hearts and minds, who likely influenced McChrystal. He drew from Mao's understanding of guerrilla warfare. More recently is David Kilcullen's 3 pillars . Martin van Creveld is a burn and salt the earth type scholar who advocates for crushing insurgents before they get too strong because no one will miss them when they're gone. Largely a preventive strategy. CVE is more of the hearts and minds school with a focus on institution building. If you address the people's needs through the govt, they won't be tempted by insurgents' promises of political change.