BOOK REVIEWS Military Leadership and Counterinsurgency: The British Army and Small War Strategy Since World War II, by Victoria Nolan, London, I.B. Tauris, 2012, 306 pp., $99.00 (hardback), ISBN 978184885774

摘要

In examining the now familiar British post-war campaigns in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus, Victoria Nolan applies organisational theory and military sociology to ascertain the role of leadership in securing perceived strategic and operational success. In particular, R.D. Downie's model is utilised to highlight the importance of a military leader in promoting, embedding, and perpetuating a culture suitable for the prosecution of small wars. Thus Nolan seeks to suggest how the process of informal learning occurred given the somewhat rudimentary official transmission of lessons in British counterinsurgency practice previously identified by scholars such as David Charters and Tom Mockaitis. To some extent, John Nagl has already followed this analytical approach in his comparative study of Malaya and Vietnam.