Victorious Insurgencies: Four Rebellions that Shaped Our World

by Anthony James Joes

Overview

Insurgencies, especially in the form of guerrilla warfare, continue to erupt across many parts of the globe. Most of these rebellions fail, but Four Rebellions that Shaped Our World analyzes four twentieth-century conflicts in which the success of the insurgents permanently altered the global political arena: the Maoists in China against Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s; the Viet Minh in French Indochina from 1945 to 1954; Castro's followers against Batista in Cuba from 1956 to 1959; and the mujahideen in Soviet Afghanistan from 1980 to 1989.

Anthony James Joes illuminates patterns of failed counterinsurgencies that include serious but avoidable political and military blunders and makes clear the critical and often decisive influence of the international setting. Offering provocative insights and timeless lessons applicable to contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, this authoritative and comprehensive book will be of great interest to policy-makers and concerned citizens alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813126142
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	11/19/2010
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Anthony James Joes, professor of political science at Saint Joseph's University, is the author of Urban Guerrilla Warfare, Resisting Rebellion: The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency, America and Guerrilla Warfare, and many other books.

Editorial Reviews

Joes (Urban Guerrilla Warfare) looks at the causes, effects, and circumstances of 20th-century rebellions in China, where Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces were routed by Mao Tse-tung's troops; Vietnam, where the French were booted out by Ho Chi Min and General Vo Nugyen Giap; Cuba, where Castro overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista; and Afghanistan, where freedom fighters defeated Soviet might. Joes adds a final chapter on the unlearned lessons of these insurgencies, with an eye towards the United States' current military situation. Underestimating the enemy, especially in military leadership, is a common thread. Another is the belief that entrenched powers fail to offer a peaceful road to change. While Joes is thorough in retelling the histories and raising salient points, he fails to establish a strong rationale for why he focused on these insurgencies and ignored others. All rebellions were inspired by the Russian communist revolution; perhaps because the domino theory has been discredited, Joes plays down the original motivator: the communist manifesto. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"An excellent book that takes four case studies of insurgency in the twentieth century and offers a concise and nuanced analysis as to why they succeeded." —Alastair Finlan, author of Special Forces, Strategy, and the War on Terror: Warfare by Other Means

From the Publisher

"...rather an interesting counterpoint to the surge of literature arguing for the superiority of insurgency in the modern world...his narrative is sprinkled with clever phrasing that makes for a read that is anything but dull.

Journal of Military History - Brian R. Price