Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

A Global History

This timely book offers a world history of insurgencies and of counterinsurgency warfare. Jeremy Black moves beyond the conventional Western-centric narrative, arguing that it is crucial to ground contemporary experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq in a global framework. Reaching back to antiquity to trace the pre-modern origins of war within states, Black interweaves thematic and chronological narratives. He probes the enduring linkages between beliefs, events, and people even as power politics, technologies, and ideologies have evolved, creating new parameters and paradigms that have framed both governmental and public views. Tracing insurgencies ranging from China to Africa to Latin America, Black highlights the widely differing military and political dimensions of each conflict. At every stage, he considers lessons learned by contemporaries, the ways in which norms developed within militaries and societies, and their impact on doctrine and policy. His sweeping study of insurrectionary warfare and of its counterinsurgency counterpart will be essential reading for all students of military history.