New Book Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare Provides Case Studies for Combating Insurgents Receives National Review Attention

NEW YORK, April 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new book titled Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare by two internationally-known civilian military advisors, Daniel Marston and Carter Malkasian receives national attention by Robert D. Kaplan, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. In a glowing review of the forthcoming Osprey Publishing title, Kaplan writes in the Wall Street Journal that "we need to add the subject of counterinsurgency to the canon of Army learning, at long last, and never again forget its lessons. We can make a great start with this book."

Co-author Daniel Marston, interviewed today on BBC radio, spoke this week at a conference hosted by the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War. In January and February he worked as a visiting fellow at the United States Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center of Excellence in Iraq, where he briefed marines on counterinsurgency fundamentals and historical case studies for incoming battalions. From his essay on lessons from Afghanistan, Marston writes: "US and allied forces ... failed to recognize the scope of local support for the Taliban, and the root causes for this support. The desire for quick solutions led to actions that encouraged insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan."

Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare is a collection of historical case studies written by leading experts in the field. It will be released on April 22, 2008.

The centerpiece of the book is an essay on the Vietnam War by Lt. Col. John A Nagl, who writes, "The bureaucracy of the United States Government was slow to adapt to the demands of counterinsurgency in Vietnam, making real changes only when it was too late." Nagl co-wrote the recently published US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. He also is author of the bestseller, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife.

Recently, The Rand Corporation released a study indicating that the U.S. lacks the capability to counter insurgencies in the Muslim world.

Daniel Marston is a Senior Lecturer in War Studies at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. His book Phoenix from the Ashes won the Templer Medal Book Prize in 2003. He has lectured widely on the principles and practices of counterinsurgency. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.