The dragons and the snakes: how the rest learned to fight the West

This text applies concepts from evolutionary science and military innovation to explore how state and nonstate adversaries of the Western powers have learned to defeat (or render irrelevant) the model of high-tech, expensive, precision warfare pioneered by the United States in 1991 and globally dominant since. The book begins with a historical overview of the period since the Cold War, framed by CIA Director James Woolsey's 1993 comment that 'we have slain a large dragon' (the Soviet Union) 'but now we find ourselves in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes, and in many ways the dragon was easier to keep track of.'

In The Dragons and the Snakes, David Kilcullen asks what the opponents of the West have learned in the past quarter-century and how they have evolved. He shows how Russia, China, Iran and North Korea developed new tactics by copying terrorists and guerrillas, and how guerrilla groups have been able to access new technologies that allowed them to take on the states that oppose them. More broadly, Kilcullen explains how evolution happens in combat, how states and non-state groups copy each other, how our enemies have sought to exploit our tunnel-vision on terrorism since 9/11, and how we can respond.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Note on Terminology -- 1. The Dragon and the Snakes -- 2. Adaptive Enemies -- 3. Woolsey's Snakes -- 4. Liminal Warfare -- 5. Conceptual Envelopment -- 6. Ebb Tide of the West -- Epilogue: A Better Peace? -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

In 1993, a newly-appointed CIA director warned that Western powers might have 'slain a large dragon' with the fall of the USSR, but now faced a 'bewildering variety of poisonous snakes'. Since then, both dragons (state enemies like Russia and China) and snakes (terrorist and guerrilla organisations) have watched the US struggle in Iraq and Afghanistan, and mastered new methods in response: hybrid and urban warfare, political manipulation, and harnessing digital technology. Leading soldier-scholar David Kilcullen reveals everything the West's opponents have learned from twenty-first-century conflict and explains how their cutting-edge tactics and adaptability pose a serious threat to America and its allies, disabling the West's military advantage.