THE DRAGONS AND THE SNAKES: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West.

• Date: 01 March 2023
• Author: Hoadley, Stephen

THE DRAGONS AND THE SNAKES: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West

Author: David Kilcullen

Published by: Scribe, Melbourne and London, 2020, 325pp, $40.

The Western way of war 'is no longer working', warns David Kilcullen. It peaked at winning battles against Iraq in 1991 and 2003, but subsequently has failed to win the peace in the Middle East and Africa. Its focus on weapons, operations and tactics detracts from longer-term strategies and undermines diplomacy and political management. It is increasingly unsustainable financially and politically.

Worse, adversaries have proved adept at countering Western military prowess. These adversaries include not only the 'dragons' (Russia, China, North Korea, Iran) but also the 'snakes' (al-Qaeda, ISIS, criminal syndicates, militia warlords and lone wolves). These enemies of Western civilisation have proliferated and spread their influence by surviving brutal trials-by-combat and then by learning from each other as well as from the West. State adversaries increasingly adopt the hybrid or grey area tactics of guerrillas, and terrorists attempt to...