Physical description

Index, ill, p.346.

Publication type

non-fiction

Summary

n The Accidental Guerrilla, Kilcullen takes us on the ground to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the global challenge (the "War on Terrorism") and small wars across the world: Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, East Timor, and Pakistan. He explains that today's conflicts are a complex hybrid of contrasting trends: local social networks and worldwide movements; traditional and postmodern culture; local insurgencies seeking autonomy and a broader terrorist campaign. He warns that the United States has tended to conflate these trends, blurring the distinction between local and global struggles and thereby enormously complicating our challenges. The West has continually misidentified insurgents with limited aims and legitimate grievances - "accidental guerrillas" - as members of a unified 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.