Counter-insurgency: Lessons from History

Insurgencies are at the center of most of the conflicts that confront the modern world, and they have been since the Second World War. Leading armies across the globe have well-developed strategies for fighting counter-insurgency campaigns which are continually adjusted and refined as a result of direct experience gained in the field. Understanding this experience and learning the right lessons from it are essential as new insurgencies break out. Perhaps this is especially important today in the wake of the attacks on America and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that is why this new edition of a pioneering survey of the subject, first published 25 years ago, is of such immediate relevance today.

Editors Ian Beckett and John Pimlott brought together a team of expert contributors who provided an international overview of counter-insurgency strategies and techniques as they were perceived and put into practice a generation ago. Each chapter considers a different army and describes its reaction to insurgency, its operations in the field and the thinking behind its counter-insurgency strategy. Changes made in strategy and tactics in response to shifting circumstances and new threats are given particular attention.

This historical survey, which covers irregular warfare in countries as widely separated as Chad, Vietnam, Uruguay and Mozambique, will be fascinating reading for anyone studying insurgencies and the armed response to them.