Violent Politics by William R Polk

Violent Politics by William R Polk

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 studied at Harvard and Oxford and taught at Harvard until 1961 when President J. F. Kennedy, McGeorge Bundy, director of the National Security Council, and Under Secretary of State, Chester Bowles put him on the newly reorganized Policy Planning Council. There he was responsible for much of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. He was one of three members of the Crisis Management Committee during the Cuban Missile Crisis; headed the American task force that helped to end the Algerian war; and later he negotiated the Egyptian-Israeli cease fire on the Suez Canal. In 1965, the resigned to become Professor of History at the University of Chicago where he founded the Middle Eastern Studies Center, and subsequently was President of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. He is author of scores of essays and 17 books on world affairs. In 2012, he organized and chaired the conference on Affordable World Security that has been called the best meeting of its kind ever held in Washington.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780061236198
ISBN 10	0061236195
Title	Violent Politics
Author	William R Polk
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Year published	2007-09-18
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.