Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 11 APR 2011

Arquilla, of the Naval Postgraduate School, is internationally recognized as a military historian, a defense analyst, and a security policy consultant. He brings all three skills to bear in this comprehensively researched and accessible treatment of a neglected subject: "the great captains of irregular warfare." He offers 18 convincing examples, irregular leaders and their successfully unconventional opponents, like George Crook, who took on powerful insurgent Indian leaders. The battles took place in locations ranging from the wilderness frontier of the French and Indian War to contemporary Chechnya. Rather than using a comparative approach, Arquilla establishes each protagonist in a distinct context. Nathanael Greene combined conventional and irregular methods to frustrate a superior British enemy during the American Revolution. Giuseppe Garibaldi mobilized insurgents to put his stamp on an independent Italy. Vo Nguyen Giap, a schoolteacher turned general, excelled at using his adversaries' strengths against them. Phoolan Devi, the only woman on Arquilla's list, was a social bandit and accomplished guerrilla who for years eluded India's soldiers and police. What they and their counterparts shared were resilience in adversity, flexibility in approach, and ruthlessness in execution. Arquilla says that irregular war has a single law: win. The author concludes that irregular leaders can be defeated but victory's costs and demands are high.