Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits: How Masters of Irregular Warfare Have Shaped Our World

by John Arquilla

From the small bands of wilderness warriors who battled in 18th-century North America to the "Chechen Lion," and the contemporary conflict in Chechnya, John Arquilla chronicles the deadly careers of the greatest masters of irregular warfare over the past 250 years. Their impact on events has been profound, with irregulars playing crucial roles in such epochal struggles as the Anglo-French duel for North America, the defeat of Napoleon in Spain and Russia, the American Civil War, both world wars, and the current era of terrorism. Seeing the world through the eyes of guerrillas, raiders and bandits, Arquilla has written an alternative history that provides lessons for warfare in our time that must not be ignored.

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, History, War

330 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 2011

Reviews

[James]

This book is well written, authoritative, and well organized. I didn't give it a fifth star because in most cases the claim that these leaders "have shaped our world" is a stretch, though they've often had a great impact on the histories of their countries. The author profiles a wide range of insurgent leaders and describes their actions and how those actions affected their nations, making it clear why he considers each to have been engaged in irregular warfare. I do wish he'd covered the revival of piracy for loot and extortion that has resurfaced at some maritime choke points in the world, e.g. the waters off eastern Africa and in some key straits in Indonesia, as well as the only insurgency I've heard of actually forming an air force, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Still, this is an interesting and informative book - I learned quite a bit about some people I'd never heard of and should have before now. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in military history.

[Kyle]

John Arquilla is one of the most sophisticated military theorists of our time and regularly works with such lauded institutions such as the Naval Postgraduate School and RAND Corporation. I was quite intrigued, then, to find one of his books at my small-town public library, and surprised to find how accessible the book actually was to the lay reader.

Arquilla has some strong opinions on irregular warfare and its merits, but for most of the book he used short profiles (only 10-15 pages each) of notable irregular military leaders to illustrate his points and highlight the different aspects of irregular warfare. Another writer might have been content to rely almost exclusively on figures such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and T.E. Lawrence. While these leaders might not be household names, as someone who has read a considerable amount of military history I can attest that plenty has been written about these men before. But Arquilla includes lesser known figures such as Frank Kitson and Aslan Maskhadov, and even introduced me to commanders such as Phoolan Devi and Abd el-Kader whom I had never encountered before.

I can't give this book five stars - the subject matter will be a little too esoteric for some general readers. But if you have any sort of interest in military history or strategy, this very accessible book is an excellent choice for both the casual enthusiast and the serious researcher.

[T. Fowler]

Altho I did not find this book outstandng, I thought it interesting. The author, a professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School has presented a review of a number of military leders who practiced irregular warfare over the last 250 years. These range from frontiersman Robert Rogers who led rangers from New England during the Seven Years War, to Aslan Maskhadov who was killed fighting the Russians in Chechnya in 2006. While the chapters on each of his subjects are necessarily only a summary, Arquilla draws basic lessons from those who were most successful in carrying out or countering irregular warfare. The ones that interested me the most, because I knew little detail about them, were Francisco Epoz y Mina who led guerillas in the Peninsular War, Abd el-Kadr who led tribal rebels agbainst the French in Algeria in the early 1800s, Giuseppe Garibaldi who was the outstanding leader leading to the unification of Italy in the mid-1880s, Frank Kitson who pioneered effective methods of counterinsurgeny for the British army in Kenya, Malaya and Northern Ireland, and Mashkadov in Chechnya.