1. A 'happy combination of clemency with firmness'. The small wars prologue; 2. The road from Sedan; 3. The paroxysms of imperial might in the shadow of the Great War; 4. From Tipperary to Tel Aviv: British counterinsurgency in the shadow of World War II; 5. From small wars to La Guerre Subversive. The radicalization and collapse of French counterinsurgency; 6. Vietnam, counterinsurgency, and the American way of war; 7. 'A conspiracy of heroes' - revolution and counterinsurgency in Latin America; 8. Building the 'most successful counterinsurgency school' - COIN as the British way of war; 9. Britain's thirty years' war in Northern Ireland; 10. Vietnam with a happy ending - Iraq and 'The Surge'; 11. Conclusion; Bibliography.
Controversial new history of counterinsurgency which challenges its claims as an effective strategy of waging war.
Douglas Porch is Distinguished Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. A specialist in military history, he advises on security issues all over the world. His most recent book, The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II, received the Award for Excellence in US Army Historical Writing from The Army Historical Foundation.
'In this brilliant volume master historian Douglas Porch shatters
the myth of contemporary counterinsurgency by exposing its raw
historical roots. American counterinsurgents often preach
moralistic sounding bromides like 'protect and serve the local
populations'. Porch deconstructs the mythical universe of
counterinsurgency and lays bare the historical truth that they are
ultimately wars of death, destruction, and often brute conquest.'
Colonel Gian Gentile, United States Military Academy, West
Point
'Douglas Porch has written one of the single most outstanding
reviews and critiques of the modern theory of counterinsurgency. It
fully exposes the myths and legends behind a fundamentally flawed
and pernicious approach to conceptualising human conflict. This
book should be essential reading for military students, scholars
and laymen alike.' Alex Marshall, The Scottish Centre for War
Studies, University of Glasgow
'I cannot say how important I believe this book to be. You may have
the usual issues with my article, but do not let these put you off
this hugely significant piece of scholarship, which melds aspects
of foreign and domestic policy in a very unusual way and, if the
world were just and reasonable, would become an internationally
acclaimed text. I hope it does because it would be little short of
a tragedy if it disappeared and the West did not embrace the
analysis and so change its ways for the better. It's a tough read
for the British and Americans, but like all good analysis, it
really can stop us making the same mistakes, generation after
generation.' Henry Porter, Observer
'Provocative … challenges the very doctrine of counterinsurgency
from the late nineteenth century to the Petraeus surge in Iraq.'
Total Politics
'This is a rich, well supported study of a tendentious topic … it
pulls together material on a remarkable variety of cases to make a
powerful point that is valuable in the undergraduate and graduate
classroom as well as for broader practitioner and public
audiences.' Jacqueline L. Hazelton, H-Diplo
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