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Price: $30.95

Format:
Hardback 336 pp.
163 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-10:
0195368347

ISBN-13:
9780195368345

Publication date:
March 2009

Imprint: OUP US

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The Accidental Guerrilla

Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One

David Kilcullen

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.

Readership : General readers interested in current events and readers of major periodicals, especially The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Nation, Time and Newsweek. Military personnel, scholars and students of foreign policy, security studies, military history/strategy, International Relations, and comparative politics.

List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Preface
Prologue: West Java, December 1996
1. The Accidental Guerilla
2. "The Crazies Will Kill Them": Afghanistan, 2006-2008
3. "The Twenty-First Day": Iraq during the Surge, 2007
4. "Terrain, Tribes and Terrorists": Conflicts from Indonesia to Europe
5. "Turning an Elephant Into a Mouse": Beyond the War on Terrorism
Conclusion
A Note on Sources and Methodology
Notes
Index

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David Kilcullen is at once part of General David Petraeus' brain trust in Baghdad, an Australian anthropologist, a Pentagon-based counterinsurgency theorist, and an on-the-ground officer/military advisor who has worked in hotspots ranging from East Africa to the Javanese highlands to the jungles of the Philippines. The "go-to guy" for journalists when it comes to counterinsurgency, he was interviewed for a full-hour on Charlie Rose, was the subject of a full-length profile in the New Yorker written by George Packer, and he's quoted frequently in The New York Times.

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Special Features

  • One of the most respected and innovative thinkers on modern warfare offers a revolutionary account of the War on Terror and war in the world today.
  • David Kilcullen is renowned for his expertise on counterinsurgency and has strong media contacts and experience. He is often quoted in the press, been the subject of a full-length feature article in The New Yorker, and was interviewed for a full hour by Charlie Rose in 2007. We can expect similar media attention for this book.
  • Informed by the author's first-hand experiences as a soldier, counterinsurgency expert, and lead advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, this book is not only very interesting, but also eminently readable.
  • Provides a timely, groundbreaking perspective on the "War on Terror," focusing not only on Iraq and Afghanistan, but other terrorist hotbeds such as Africa, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
  • Kilcullen holds a doctorate in political anthropology.