Winning Insurgent War: Back to Basics
Abstract
Dr. Demarest's book gives students and practitioners a pragmatic start point rooted in the classic principles of war and simultaneously in the jurisprudential principles of impunity and culpability -- concepts that apply across the entire plane of human conflict. Demarest reminds us that success in warfare requires control of land, and so an empirical knowledge of geography, both physical and human (if the two could actually be separated) is vital. The study of the spectrum, or firmament, of conflict -- and how principles of war apply across that firmament -- requires an unconventional approach. This is not a standard book. Student and teacher can pick up this book and start at the beginning, middle, or end. No matter the start point, the reader will find convention challenged and see that normal is no better than the cycles of a washing machine. There are no chapters in this book, and few explanatory footnotes expounding arcane academe. Demarest shakes up the growing "laundry list" approach to war with one of his own, reaching a malleable full gross. The 144 sections of the book, short or not so, are thoughtful and thought-provoking, most spiced with humor, and some irreverent, especially as to passing and fashionable concepts. A gimmick perhaps, his frequent cinematic references together make a fabric of essential observations -- observations that can hardly be taken as superfluous in a world aching for better cultural understanding of the battlefields. The text, taken as a whole, refuses to admit distance among what otherwise seem separate compartments of thought. Political philosophy, police intelligence, military strategy, art, and architecture are all presented as one ball of yarn.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA549443
Entities
People
- Geoff Demarest