Counterinsurgency

Douglas Porch is Distinguished Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. A specialist in military history, he advises on security issues all over the world. His most recent book, The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II, received the Award for Excellence in US Army Historical Writing from The Army Historical Foundation.

• 1. A 'happy combination of clemency with firmness'. The small wars prologue; 2. The road from Sedan; 3. The paroxysms of imperial might in the shadow of the Great War; 4. From Tipperary to Tel Aviv: British counterinsurgency in the shadow of World War II; 5. From small wars to La Guerre Subversive. The radicalization and collapse of French counterinsurgency; 6. Vietnam, counterinsurgency, and the American way of war; 7. 'A conspiracy of heroes' - revolution and counterinsurgency in Latin America; 8. Building the 'most successful counterinsurgency school' - COIN as the British way of war; 9. Britain's thirty years' war in Northern Ireland; 10. Vietnam with a happy ending - Iraq and 'The Surge'; 11. Conclusion; Bibliography.

'In this brilliant volume master historian Douglas Porch shatters the myth of contemporary counterinsurgency by exposing its raw historical roots. American counterinsurgents often preach moralistic sounding bromides like 'protect and serve the local populations'. Porch deconstructs the mythical universe of counterinsurgency and lays bare the historical truth that they are ultimately wars of death, destruction, and often brute conquest.' Colonel Gian Gentile, United States Military Academy, West Point