Book Notes
| Published date | 01 January 2012 |
| Date | 01 January 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343311431919 |
| Subject Matter | Book Notes |
Book Notes
Arquilla, John (2011) Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits:
How Masters of Irregular Warfare Have Shaped Our
World. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee. xviii þ310 pp. ISBN
9781566638326.
The talents of great generals leading ‘big battalions’, from
Hannibal and Caesar to Guderian and Patton, are exam-
ined from every possible angle in thousands of volumes,
but the captains of insurgencies are usually treated as
supporting and often rogue characters. Yet the wars of
nowadays are fought and won not by pitched battles but
by ambushes and raids, so Arquilla is right to insist that
the exploits of his 18 heroes ‘carry important lessons for
military practitioners in this new era of irregular warfare’
(p. 269). His selection of cases from Robert Rogers to
Aslan Maskhadov will leave every reader wanting to add
a personal favorite (my choice would be Nestor Makhno,
while Ahmad Shah Massoud would probably come out
as a top contender), but the arresting vividness of analytic
portraits makes the book very hard to put down. Where
Arquilla is rather dry and imprecise is in defining ‘irregu-
lar warfare’ by three key features: engagement of small
units, prevalence of guerilla tactics, and resort to terror-
ism (pp. 4–6). This definition may be no worse than the
Pentagon’s vague description of ‘unconventional’ war,
but it doesn’t quite answer the purpose of the book.
No bona fide terrorists are presented, despite occasional
references to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. The prob-
lem area of urban guerillas should have been covered but
isn’t, while banditry belongs to a different analysis, so
Phoolan Devi is an odd woman out. Another disappoint-
ment is Arquilla’s abbreviated effort at drawing lessons,
where the question most relevant to this narrative – how
important for sustaining and winning irregular war is
personal leadership? – is not raised. Nevertheless, the
book is excellent.
Pavel Baev
Brabazon, James (2010) My Friend the Mercenary.
Edinburgh: Canongate. 352 pp. ISBN 9781847674401.
Liberia’s relapse into violence following its devastating
civil war (1989–96) is frequently overlooked. Between
2000 and 2003, the Liberians United for Reconciliation
and Democracy (LURD) attempted – ultimately suc-
cessfully – to forcefully remove President Charles Taylor
from power. James Brabazon, then a fledgling television
producer, employed gun-for-hire Nick Du Toit for pro-
tection and filmed LURD as it advanced towards the
capital Monrovia. Written as a memoir, the publication
focuses on the journalist’s relationship with Du Toit,
who became notorious for his leading role in a failed
2004 coup in Equatorial Guinea. While the latter third
of the book describes the coup (and its organization and
outcome), the section on Liberia is particularly revealing.
Brabazon’s travels with LURD form the book’s major
backdrop, and there are fascinating anecdotes and insights
into the rebel group. Despite the book’s popular style and
wide intended readership, it would be a mistake to disre-
gard the writing as that of a carefree, ill-informed journal-
ist, as academics are, on occasion, prone to do. The
publication provides an important, often graphic, account
of a dynamic often missing from the literature on Liberia.
The author was one of thefew foreigners able to access the
rebels, interview both foot soldiers and leaders, and
develop a rapport with the group. Such was the intensity
of Brabazon’sinteraction with the rebels andDu Toit that
one even wonders whether his independence was severely
compromised. Many may argue that his conflicted views
on the integrity of LURD, the 2004 coup, privatesecurity
and the propriety of war reporting bear witness to this.
The book has its faults, but it certainly provides an impor-
tant reminder of LURD’s role within Liberia and, more
broadly, the shocking brutality of armed conflict.
Mark Naftalin
Journal of Peace Research
49(1) 261–267
ªThe Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343311431919
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