Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
In the current Middle East, insurgency tactics are used with frequency and increasing success. But guerrilla war-fare is not just the tool of modern-day terrorists. Its roots stretch back to our very own revolution.
In Violent Politics, William Polk takes us on a concise, brilliant tour of insurgencies throughout history, starting with the American struggle for independence, when fighters had to battle against both the British and the loyalists, those colonists who sided with the monarchy. Instinctively, in a way they probably wouldn't have described as a coherent strategy, the rebel groups employed the tactics of insurgency.
From there, Polk explores the role of insurgency in several other notable conflicts, including the Spanish guerrilla war against Napoleon, the Irish struggle for independence, the Algerian War of National Independence, and Vietnam. He eventually lands at the present day, where the lessons of this history are needed more than ever as Americans engage in ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq—and beyond.
William R. Polk
William R. Polk taught Middle Eastern history and politics and Arabic at Harvard until 1961, when he became a member of the Policy Planning Council of the U.S. Department of State. In 1965, he became Professor of History at the University of Chicago, where he established the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His many books include The Birth of America and Understanding Iraq.
Read more from William R. Polk
Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Khamenei Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, & Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neighbors and Strangers: The Fundamentals of Foreign Affairs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Violent Politics
Related ebooks
Nexus of Global Jihad: Understanding Cooperation Among Terrorist Actors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNon-Western responses to terrorism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCounter Insurgency: Lessons from History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East: Northern Lebanon from al-Qaeda to ISIS Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe role of terrorism in twenty-first-century warfare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCounterinsurgency in Modern Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5America's National Security Architecture: Rebuilding the Foundation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Secret Wars: Covert Conflict in International Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Terrorist's Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Influence Warfare Volume I: A Blueprint Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insurgents, Terrorists, and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Faces of Terrorism and The Ultimate Solution. By: Prit Paul Singh Bambah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Theory of ISIS: Political Violence and the Transformation of the Global Order Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSyria After the Uprisings: The Political Economy of State Resilience Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Transformation of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Terrorism and Transnational Security Threats in West Africa:: A Global Perspective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReliability and Alliance Interdependence: The United States and Its Allies in Asia, 1949–1969 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProxy Wars: Suppressing Violence through Local Agents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSUICIDE TERRORISM: IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF WHEN AND HOW WELL PREPARED ARE AMERICA'S LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jungle of Snakes: A Century of Counterinsurgency Warfare from the Philippines to Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rethinking the Principles of War: The Future of Warfare Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism - 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mind of the Terrorist: The Psychology of Terrorism from the IRA to al-Qaeda Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine, and the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The Sunday Times Bestseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Violent Politics
14 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Book; many lessons not learnt! If only America listens to the immense wisdom at its disposal!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Polk is one of my favorite authors on history and politics. In this volume, he turns to the problem of violence in politics, specifically insurgencies or guerrilla warfare. Polk believes that insurgencies share common characteristics. Most importantly, they boil down to the natives vs. foreigners. Though the foreign invaders may seem to have a military advantage in superior arms, numbers, and training, the only way, in the end, to beat an insurgency is to commit genocide against the people native to that land. They know the land too well, will attack and then disappear where the invaders can't follow.The insurgencies have followed other patterns. They usually start with only a handful of people, and few arms. They first disrupt the government, then begin providing government-like services themselves. They organize on the local level. They are generally responses to incredible levels of brutality and injustice by the foreigners. The foreigners respond with more brutality, which drives more of the populace to support the insurgents. Polk covers a variety of insurgencies. Interestingly, the first one he chooses is the American Revolution, which he counts as a guerrilla war, though Washington kept trying to turn it into a regular war, and when he did he was beaten by the British, who were, again, superior in men, weapons, and training. Then he covers the Spanish resistance to the French under Napoleon. the Philippine insurrection, the Irish struggle for independence, Tito and the Yugoslav partisans, the Greek resistance, Kenya and the Mau Mau, the Algerian war of national independence, the Vietnamese struggle against the French, the Americans take over for the French in Vietnam, and the Afghan resistance to the British an the Russians.All of these have their unique features and their similarities. Polk draws lessons for the war in Iraq, and he is also highly concerned about the neoconservative conception of the "Long War" that envisions many American wars for much of the 21st century, which claim to want to spread democracy and is anti-Muslim. The last chapter includes an interesting analysis of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual, edited by David Patraeus and James Amos, and shows where analysis of insurgency shows the manual to be flawed. For example, the manual speaks glowingly of nation building. But, Polk argues, "Look at the American experience. American forces have been sent abroad to fight more than two hundred times since our country was founded. But in recent years only sixteen times have we attempted 'the core objective of nation building...regime change or survivability.' Of these sixteen, Minxin Pei and Sara Kaper found in a study for the Carnegie Endowment, eleven were 'outright failures'. Two, Germany and Japan, can be considered successes, while two others, tiny and nearby Granada and Panama, were probably successful. Considering this record, John Tierney asked in the May 17th, 2004, International herald Tribune, how could neoconservatives or any conservatives 'who normally do not trust their government to run a public school down the street, come to believe that federal bureaucrats could transform an entire nation in the alien culture of the Middle East?" Polk talks some about his background in the first part of the book. He was not only an academic, but part of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and saw much of the intelligence and other government documentation on insurgencies while there. He was particularly involved in Vietnam, Algeria, and Afghanistan. He tells a fascinating story of studying all he could find on Vietnam in 1962, and not finding any study of guerrilla warfare, not even a definition. So he took six weeks off to study everything he could find on insurgency, and was invited to speak to a graduating class of senior military officers headed for combat in Vietnam. He told them at the time that the war was already lost, because Ho Chi Minh had won the political issue by becoming the embodiment of Vietnamese nationalism, and had already so disrupted the South Vietnamese government it had basically ceased to function. His military audience was furious, but when in 1967 he told them much the same thing they were listening and hearing what he had to say.Highly recommended.