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Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One
Oxford University Press
March 2009
On Sale: March 16, 2009
384 pages
ISBN: 0195368347
EAN: 9780195368345
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
David Kilcullen is one of the world's most influential
experts on counterinsurgency and modern warfare. A
Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General David
Petraeus in Iraq, his vision of war dramatically
influenced America's decision to rethink its military
strategy in Iraq and implement "the surge."
Now, in The Accidental Guerrilla, Kilcullen provides a
remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror.
Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face
of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war
(the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the
associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq,
Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand,
Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa. Kilcullen sees
today's conflicts as a complex pairing of contrasting
trends: local social networks and worldwide movements;
traditional and postmodern culture; local insurgencies
seeking autonomy and a broader pan-Islamic campaign. He
warns that America's actions in the war on terrorism
have tended to conflate these trends, blurring the
distinction between local and global struggles and thus
enormously complicating our challenges. Indeed, the US
had done a poor job of applying different tactics to
these very different situations, continually
misidentifying insurgents with limited aims and
legitimate grievances (whom he calls "accidental
guerrillas") as part of a coordinated worldwide terror
network. We must learn how to disentangle these strands,
develop strategies that deal with global threats, avoid
local conflicts where possible, and win them where
necessary. Colored with gripping battlefield experiences that range
from the jungles and highlands of Southeast Asia to the
mountains of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to the
dusty towns of the Middle East, The Accidental Guerrilla
will, quite simply, change the way we think about war.
This much anticipated book will be a must read for
everyone concerned about the war on terror.
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