The Dragons and the Snakes

Author: David Kilcullen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190265701
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Just a few years ago, people spoke of the US as a hyperpower-a titan stalking the world stage with more relative power than any empire in history. Yet as early as 1993, newly-appointed CIA director James Woolsey pointed out that although Western powers had "slain a large dragon" by defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War, they now faced a "bewildering variety of poisonous snakes." In The Dragons and the Snakes, the eminent soldier-scholar David Kilcullen asks how, and what, opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. Applying a combination of evolutionary theory and detailed field observation, he explains what happened to the "snakes"-non-state threats including terrorists and guerrillas-and the "dragons"-state-based competitors such as Russia and China. He explores how enemies learn under conditions of conflict, and examines how Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly-defined form of warfare since the Cold War has created a fitness landscape that forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies. Within the world's contemporary conflict zones, Kilcullen argues, state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon systems once only available to governments. A counterintuitive look at this new, vastly more complex environment, The Dragons and the Snakes will not only reshape our understanding of the West's enemies' capabilities, but will also show how we can respond given the increasing limits on US power.

Blood Year

Author: David Kilcullen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190600543
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Book Description
In 2014, a resurgent and bellicose Russia took over Crimea and fueled a civil war in Eastern Ukraine; post-Saddam Iraq lost a third of its territory to an army of hyper-violent millennialists; and the peace process in Israel seemed to completely collapse. In short, the post-Cold War security order that the US had constructed after 1991 seemed to be coming apart at the seams. David Kilcullen was one of the architects of America's strategy in the late phases of the second Gulf War, and he has also spent time in Afghanistan and other hotspots. In Blood Year, he provides a wide-angle view of the current situation in the Middle East and analyzes how America and the West ended up in such dire circumstances. Kilcullen lays much of the blame on Bush's initial decision to invade Iraq (which had negative secondary effects in Afghanistan), but also takes Obama to task for simply withdrawing and adopting a "leading from behind" strategy. As events have proven, Kilcullen contends, withdrawal was a fundamentally misguided plan. The U.S. had uncorked the genie, and it had a responsibility to at least attempt to keep it under control. Instead, the U.S. is at a point where administration officials state that the losses of Ramadi and Palmyra are manageable setbacks. Kilcullen argues that the U.S. needs to re-engage in the region, whether it wants to or not, because it is largely responsible for the situation that is now unfolding. Blood Year is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding not only why the region that the U.S. invaded a dozen years ago has collapsed into utter chaos, but also what the U.S. can do to alleviate the grim situation.

Drakon

Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199557322
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 492

Book Description
This volume explores the dragon or the supernatural serpent in Graeco-Roman myth and religion. It incorporates analyses, with comprehensive accounts of the rich literary and iconographic sources, for the principal dragons of myth, and discusses matters of cult and the paradoxical association of dragons and serpents with the most benign of deities.

Everything You Need to Know About Snakes

Author: DK
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
ISBN: 1409329828
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Book Description
Learn all you need to know (and more) about these stunningly slithery reptiles Ever wondered how to charm a cobra? Everything You Need to Know About Snakes contains amazing facts and staggering statistics that will tell you all you could hope to know about the slithery snake. Find out how far a cobra can spit, meet some seriously slippery characters in the most camouflaged stakes, have a look at a gallery of fangs and read all about a whopping 15m long prehistoric snake. Perfect for school projects, Everything You Need to Know About Snakes also contains facts about lizards, crocodiles, tortoises and turtles. It's everything you need to know and everything you want to find out.

An Instinct for Dragons

Author: David E. Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134951329
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Book Description
First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Mikey and the Dragons

Author: Jocko Willink
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780981618869
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Little Mikey is scared of everything. He s certain there are creepy crawlies hidden under the rug. He sleeps with his light on to keep the monsters at bay. He s scared of sharks and snakes even ladders and slides and it all makes him incredibly sad. But, when he stumbles upon an old book that tells the tale of a young boy prince that volunteers to protect his king-less kingdom from hordes of dragons, there s a chance Mikey might discover that his fears are not quite as big as they seem

King Cobra vs. Komodo Dragon

Author: Jon Alan
Publisher: Gray Duck Creative Works
ISBN: 1948052822
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Book Description
It’s fight time for the king cobra and the Komodo dragon! One animal is The Hooded Villain, and the other animal is The Salivating Attacker. Both fighters rise up for a challenge. But which one will be crowned champion of the Hissing Fit?

The Penguin Book of Dragons

Author: Scott G. Bruce
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 014313504X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
Two thousand years of legend and lore about the menace and majesty of dragons, which have breathed fire into our imaginations from ancient Rome to Game of Thrones A Penguin Classic The most popular mythological creature in the human imagination, dragons have provoked fear and fascination for their lethal venom and crushing coils, and as avatars of the Antichrist, servants of Satan, couriers of the damned to Hell, portents of disaster, and harbingers of the last days. Here are accounts spanning millennia and continents of these monsters that mark the boundary between the known and the unknown, including: their origins in the deserts of Africa; their struggles with their mortal enemies, elephants, in the jungles of South Asia; their fear of lightning; the world’s first dragon slayer, in an ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns; the colossal sea monster Leviathan; the seven-headed “great red dragon” of the Book of Revelation; the Loch Ness monster; the dragon in Beowulf, who inspired Smaug in Tolkien’s The Hobbit; the dragons in the prophecies of the wizard Merlin; a dragon saved from a centipede in Japan who gifts his human savior a magical bag of rice; the supernatural feathered serpent of ancient Mesoamerica; and a flatulent dragon the size of the Trojan Horse. From the dark halls of the Lonely Mountain to the blue skies of Westeros, we expect dragons to be gigantic, reptilian predators with massive, bat-like wings, who wreak havoc defending the gold they have hoarded in the deep places of the earth. But dragons are full of surprises, as is this book. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

On the Plain of Snakes

Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 0544866479
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 459

Book Description
Legendary travel writer Theroux drives the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines.

Sea Monsters Vs. Dragons

Author: Michael O'Hearn
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1669020703
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

Book Description
The masters of sky and sea confront each other in this monstrous battle. Few beasts can match the power of a fire breathing dragon. But huge sea monsters are also fearsome forces of nature. Discover the weapons and abilities of these mighty beasts, and then get ready for a fiery, head to head fight.