Description
Book SynopsisThe rise and fall of the Cold War coincided with the universalization and consolidation of the modern nation-state as the key unit of the wider international system. A key characteristic of the post-Cold War era, in which the US has emerged as the sole superpower, is the growing number of collapsing or collapsed states. A growing number of states are, or have become, mired in conflict or civil war, the antecedents of which are often to be found in the late-colonial and Cold War era. At the same time, US foreign policy (and the actions of other organizations such as the United Nations) may well be compounding state failure in the context of the post-9/11 Global War on Terror (GWOT) or what is also increasingly referred to as the âLong Warâ. The Long War is often represented as a ânewâ era in warfare and geopolitics. This book acknowledges that the Long War is new in important respects, but it also emphasizes that the Long War bears many similarities to the Cold War. A key similarity
Table of Contents
1. The Long War: Insurgency, Counterinsurgency and Collapsing States 2. From 'Shock and Awe' to 'Hearts and Minds': The Fall and Rise of US Counterinsurgency Capability in Iraq 3. From Collapsing States to Neo-Trusteeship: The Limits to Solving the Problem of 'Precarious Statehood' in the 21st Century 4. Engaging or Withdrawing, Winning or Losing? The Contradictions of Counterinsurgency Policy in Afghanistan and Iraq 5. The Battle for Iraq: Islamic Insurgencies in Comparative Perspective 6. Less is More: The Problematic Future of Irregular Warfare in an Era of Collapsing States 7. Things Come Together: Symbolic Violence and Guerrilla Mobilisation 8. Things Fall Apart: The Endgame Dynamics of Internal Wars 9. The End of War as we Knew it? Insurgency, Counterinsurgency and Lessons from the Forgotten History of Early Terror Networks 10. The Misleading Problem of Failed States: A 'Socio-Geography' of Terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era 11. Caudillos and the Crisis of the Colombian State: Fragmented Sovereignty, the War System and the Privatisation of Counterinsurgency in Colombia 12. The Insurgency of Global Empire and the Counterinsurgency of Local Resistance: New World Order in an Era of Civilian Provisional Authority 13. The Last Empire? From Nation-Building Compulsion to Nation-Wrecking Futility and Beyond 14. All Roads Lead to and from Iraq: The Long War and the Transformation of the Nation-State System
