Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla

摘要

In Out of the Mountains, Dave Kilcullen, author of The Accidental Guerrilla and CEO of a Washington-based strategy and design firm, introduces a set of ideas intended to better explain 'the conflict ecosystem - the non-linear, many-sided, wild, and messy world of real conflicf (p. 17). He uses case studies to illuminate 'megatrends' that he believes will shape not just armed conflict but everyday life in the next three decades, and introduces a 'theory of competitive control' to explain the complex interactions between people, government, and state and non-state groups in urban environments, especially littoral megacities. This is an important book because, as the author makes clear, such cities, and the security threats they contain, are not just expanding, but also exhibiting increased local and transnational connectivity.