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Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare. Edited by Daniel Marston and Carter Malkasian. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84603-281-3. Maps. Bibliograpy. Index. Pp. 304. $27.95.
This collection is both important and timely. Insurgency (or guerrUla warfare or low-intensity operations or whatever label du jour is applied) is the oldest form of warfare on the planet - the natural response of those who cannot, for whatever reason, directly confront the forces of their enemies. Despite this fact, regular armies have rarely been prepared to deal with irregular foes and usuaUy begin by first stigmatizing them as outlaws, bandits, and/or terrorists and then making the fateful assumption that soldiers prepared to fight and win conventional battles will have little difficulty in defeating such opponents. Only after applying inappropriate tactics and, all too often, inflicting self-defeating brutalities on circumambient civilians, have a few armies realized that new approaches are needed. Even fewer have actually succeeded after years of effort in eradicating or reducing to nuisance level the insurgencies they had so...