Understanding Urban Warfare

by Liam Collins, John Spencer

Overview

No environment is more challenging for militaries than a city. No form of combat is more inherently destructive than urban warfare. And yet too often, militaries are both unprepared for the challenges of cities and unable to avoid being pulled into brutal urban fights. In an increasingly urban world, the future character of conflict will also be increasingly urban. This book sets out to understand that future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912440351
Publisher:	Howgate Publishing Limited
Publication date:	10/03/2022
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Liam Collins is the executive director of the Madison Policy Forum, asenior fellow at New America, and a permanent member with the Councilon Foreign Relations. He retired as a colonel from the U.S. Army after 27years of service. As a career special forces officer, he conducted multipleoperational and combat deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, SouthAmerica, and the Horn of Africa. He was the founding director of theModern War Institute and a former director of the Combating TerrorismCenter at West Point. He is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of U.S.Counterterrorism and Irregular Warfare Operations. He earned a Bachelor ofScience degree in Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace) from the UnitedStates Military Academy, and a master in public affairs and a PhD fromPrinceton University's School of Public and International Affairs.

Editorial Reviews

'Understanding Urban Warfare is an excellent primer on the challenges of urban warfare. Seasoned "urbanistas" (scholars of urban operations) and newcomers to the issue will benefit from the text.' - Parameters

'More training in actual urban areas, integrating the consequences of short-term decisions on long-term success and better incorporation of other-than-military considerations: these and more are essential if preparations are to reduce the high costs of urban fighting. This book is a step in the right direction.'

- Association of the United States Army

"John Spencer and Liam Collins are to Urban Warfare what Billy Mitchel was to airpower or Karl Doenitz was to submarines." - Max Brooks, New York Times best-selling author of World War Z and Devolution

"Understanding Urban Warfare's ambitious title reflects the authors' challenging objective to make combat's most complicated form understandable - and Liam Collins and John Spencer have succeeded brilliantly. Leveraging the experiences of recent operations, they provide insights and lessons essential for soldiers and policymakers alike. A riveting read." - General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Ret.) former Commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Afghanistan and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), New York Times best-selling author of My Share of the Task and Team of Teams

"A timely, important, and exceptional examination of the extraordinary challenges of urban warfare by two soldier-scholars with considerable experience and expertise in urban combat. Understanding Urban Warfare is the consummate study that demonstrates how critical it is that policy makers and military leaders understand the dynamics of urban ecosystems and how to deal with them." - General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, U.S. Central Command, and NATO and US Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIA.

"Our next war will most likely be fought in cities. Here Col Collins and Col. Spencer have compiled more than a dozen case studies, each featuring a different expert participant. The reader can grasp the challenge: It seems urban warfare, like all other branches of combat, is so sui generis that no cookie-cutter model of doctrine applies. So one has to read widely and adapt, adapt, adapt." - Bing West, bestselling author of No True Glory: A Front-line Account of the Battle for Fallujah.

"Impressive in both breadth and detail, Understanding Urban Warfare manages to be extremely readable and a very useful introduction to this vitally important subject." - Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad, Berlin - The Downfall 1945, and D-Day - The Battle for Normandy.

From the Publisher