The Counterinsurgent Imagination

A New Intellectual History

Joseph MacKay (Australian National University, Canberra)

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English

Cambridge University Press
05 January 2023

Military history; History of ideas; International relations; War & defence operations

Series: LSE International Studies

Counterinsurgency, the violent suppression of armed insurrection, is among the dominant kinds of war in contemporary world politics. Often linked to protecting populations and reconstructing legitimate political orders, it has appeared in other times and places in very different forms – and has taken on a range of politics in doing so. How did it arrive at its present form, and what generated these others, along the way? Spanning several centuries and four detailed case studies, The Counterinsurgent Imagination unpacks and explores this intellectual history through counterinsurgency manuals. These military theoretical and instructional texts, and the practitioners who produced them, made counterinsurgency possible in practice. By interrogating these processes, this book explains how counter-insurrectionary war eventually took on its late twentieth and early twenty-first century forms. It shows how and why counterinsurgent ideas persist, despite recurring failures.

By: Joseph MacKay (Australian National University Canberra)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 158mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 620g
ISBN: 9781009225816
ISBN 10: 1009225812
Series: LSE International Studies
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 05 January 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Joseph MacKay is a Fellow in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. He works on historical international security, international hierarchies, and the history of international thought.

Reviews for The Counterinsurgent Imagination: A New Intellectual History

'This is a fascinating re-reading of counterinsurgency field manuals as a form of conservative, high modern utopianism. Often reactionary, always violent, these documents and the wars they authorise are conservative and world-making projects of empire. This is an important addition to the critical literature on counterrevolutionary war.' Patricia Owen, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford