Ceaseless conflict

The so-called dawn of long peace post Cold War was a misplaced notion, as the world is engulfed by wars on many fronts today

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THIS SLIM BOOK on war and peace by two accomplished conflict specialists David Kilcullen and Greg Mills is a valuable contribution to the bookshelf when many regions of the world are currently ravaged by bloody war and intractable conflict. The authors combine military service with academic acumen, distinctive policy advisory roles and operational experience in different war zones of the world. Mills heads the Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation and has served four deployments in Afghanistan as an adviser and has also worked extensively in Colombia and with some African governments.

Co-author Kilcullen holds professorships in Australia and the US and has also served as an infantry officer, intelligence specialist, policy adviser and diplomat.

His impressive credentials include serving as senior counter-insurgency adviser to General David Petraeus in Iraq and later as counterterrorism adviser to former US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice. Clearly, Kilcullen and Mills are black belts in studying and shaping conflict policy first-hand, and subsequently writing about this complex and tragic subject -bloody war and elusive peace-in a reasonably objective manner.

The book under review is based on decades of work that both authors have done in different conflict geographies, ranging from Iraq, Congo, Somalia, East Timor, Colombia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. The survey also includes the more recent conflicts: Russia-Ukraine and West Asia (briefly)-where the Israeli genocide in Gaza continues with sickening intensity and callous impunity.