Saturday, June 06, 2009

Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study by Walter Laqueur

Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study by Walter Laqueur attempts to do what the title says. I'll give Laqueur credit some of the theorists and examples he discusses are those that are so obscure I haven't heard of them even though I've been studying the topic for 4 years now. That being said there are some major problems with his work. The most glaring is one of definitions. His idea of Guerrillas is so broad that it includes such groups as Baader-Meinhof and FLQ. To my mind this makes the term almost useless. These are groups that barely made it into phase one. He also strikes me as trying his hardest to be contrary. He frequently breaks with the standard view on various topics such as the utility of guerrillas in Yugoslavia during the Second World War with little or no evidence. In short borrow it from the library and copy the bibliography.

Not recommended.

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