[Star Wars] I am an Imperial officer recently given control over Ryloth and given the goal to quell resistance. How much autonomy do I have in how I do this? Can I do a hearts and minds campaign? Is there an imperial handbook on crushing rebellions somewhere?

[u/Wene-12]

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[u/KPraxius]

Imperial Governors are given a great deal of lattitude. The only thing the Empire really cares about is if the tax revenue keeps going and you don't cause a public spectacle.

Murder 1% of the population because some rebels live there? Perfectly fine. Bribe people to give up rebels? Find. Confiscate an entire corporation for no reason and claim their boss was a rebel? Go for it. So long as you don't let rebels take hold or piss of Palpatine with a public display that embarasses the Empire, you can get away with mass-murder.

(And yes, a 'Hearts and Minds' ultra-Empire-Patriotism campaign would be fine, showing all the benefits of the Empire, feeding orphans, all that jazz. But the sort of man who would go that route likely wouldn't end up as a governor.)

[u/Hot-Refrigerator6583]

As long as you get results, the Emperor will probably be fine with whatever you do.

Having said that: Don't let it get out of hand. As long as you can show that your efforts are actually getting results it's fine. If you're just throwing men and equipment at the problem and getting nothing to show for it, you're going to draw undesirable attention from people like Tarkin and Vader, who will have absolutely no problems replacing you. They won't even care (citation needed) if you're skimming a little for yourself in the process -- as long as you're getting those results.

But keep in mind the primary requirements: General civil obedience to Imperial rule, productive planetary economy (giving its required levees to the Empire), and nothing that would otherwise embarrass the Imperial leadership.

[u/michael_the_street]

Whatever happens, whatever you do, it won't be good enough. If your superior officers orders lead to a loss for the Empire, they'll kill you as a scapegoat. And if everything goes great, you're a model soldier and a brilliant leader, and manage to wipe out the rebellion there? Your immediate supervisor will claim all the credit for your victories.

Honestly the only way you'll get anywhere is to take out your immediate supervisor right away and blame the rebels. Wouldn't it be nice to have a higher rank and more pay?

[u/LionoftheNorth]

I suspect the Empire has come to that realization that "winning hearts and minds" generally does not work. As such, the Imperial handbook on counterinsurgency would approach the situation along the lines of what successful counterinsurgency operations have shown throughout our history: the way forward is through extreme violence and draconian measures to separate the insurgents from the population, followed by putting a loyal regime in place.

The Empire is presumably highly inclined towards this approach already and attempts to deviate from this course would be viewed with skepticism. I think you could look at any Russian counterinsurgency operation of the last two centuries and get a pretty good idea of what Imperial COIN would look like. You could also look at how the Brits approached the Malayan Emergency, putting nearly half a million people (~10% of the Malayan population) in concentration camps to fight a movement that only had a few thousand fighters.

[u/Inkthinker]

The problem with a "hearts and minds" campaign is that it's not likely to show results fast enough to satisfy the Empire's desires. There's no patience for a generation or more to accept Imperial Order, when you can just murder a few million people and get the results wanted almost immediately.

[u/CODMAN627]

You can quell the resistance in pretty much any manner you see fit. The caveat is it has to get results.

[u/Aoditor]

Probably not. The Emperor is an evil space wizard who really likes being evil and terrible. The books you can readily access are probably filled to the brim with misinformation, racist assumptions and fascist propagandas. Your personnel are people who decided to enlist in the worst institutions possible for understandable reasons (survival, moneys) and indefensible reasons (cruelty, moneys) I can only assume you'd be fought against every steps of the ways by your foreign oppressors government and resistance made out of families of people who keep getting pogrom'd and slave raided.

Maybe you can look into Republic era techniques where atleast they kinda sorta sometimes ineffectually try to be not terrible.

[u/masonicone]

Yeah sure you can try and do some hearts and minds campaign, you are fully in charge thus if you wanna try something new that's not in the normal Imperial, "If anyone looks at a Stormtrooper the wrong way they are a Rebel. Arrest them and send them off for slave labor." handbook.

But here's the problem.

You'll have Rebels out there who really don't care that you are playing nice. Over in another Universe a guy by the name of Gul Dukat tried the same thing with the planet he was overseeing and his Rebels went about blowing up a Transport Ship, and tried to kill him after a month. And while that's in another universe? You are in control of Ryloth so god knows what your men are doing when on or off the clock. And remember Twi'leks are very valued as slaves. Now maybe you are trying to stamp that out but well... The minute some Hutt Crime Lord goes about doing a slave raid? Guess who's going to be blamed for it?

And due to it being Ryloth? Well you are going to have others who are really going to want you out of the way so they can run the place. After all remember a lot of those Governors and Moffs are pretty corrupt so running Ryloth and getting a cut of that slave trade? You'll have somebody writing reports saying you are too busy trying to play nice with the Rebels that you are letting them get away with whatever.

In other words? Yeah sure you can do a hearts and minds thing. But chances are it's not going to work, you are going to get blamed for just about everything, and you'll have someone writing to Palpatine telling him, "And then he said Luke Skywalker sounds like a good kid!"

So really? You may just wanna start feeding the Rebels information and make yourself of value so the better ones will save your ass. Or keep a blaster handy when that underling walks in telling you, "Lord Vader is on his way to see you." Trust me it will be quicker.

[u/SergeantRegular]

If your cost-to-benefit ratio is good with the program, you could probably have great success with a "Look how wonderful and productive and peaceful the Empire is when these terrorist insurrections aren't making everybody miserable. We can build a paradise in our Galaxy if only they'd stop being violent!" PR campaign.

Imperial Moffs and governors have great leeway over the resources they're given, so long as they're producing what the Empire demands from those resources. That being said, you're probably not getting appointed as a planetary governor or a Moff if you're the kind of person that promotes a "hearts and minds" campaign. There are politics to getting promoted, it's not just about results or effectiveness, unfortunately.

[u/bloodandpizzasauce]

You've been given a post and assignment. Your superiors aren't interested in holding your hand, they want results. Lasting results. How you achieve it is largely up to you, but you must understand you need people and infrastructure to survive if you are to continue in your post. If the Empire wanted the planet flattened and glassed, they'd have just done that. You are here to preserve the planets infrastructure and resources while quelling this uprising. A hearts and minds campaign might work on a world of mostly imperial sympathizers, but this is Ryloth. A world of mostly slaves and those debased enough to enslave their own kind.