Book excerpt: The principles of small wars deserve special consideration due to the increased likelihood of those types of wars and the Marines' early experience in Latin America. In particular, the principles contained in or derived from the Marine Corps' Small Wars Manual (SWM) are applicable to current forward presence operations, including the military's role in the war on drugs, although it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the merits of counternarcotics (CN) strategy and determine measures of effectiveness. Latin America is where Marines got hands-on experience in conducting small wars. Now U.S. policy mandates the return of the military to the proving ground. The SWM remains relevant because Marines waged small wars in an American context with all the problems and limitations inherent in that fact. Most of SWM's abiding principles appear intact, if in somewhat altered form, in current doctrinal publications, draft JCS Pub 3-07 and FM 100-20/AF Pamphlet 3-20. An outgrowth of this study is specific recommendations to develop an adaptable regional plan incorporating principles from the SWM which views CN in the context of counterinsurgency (CI), and to use the NSC structure to strengthen inter-agency cooperation in current operations.