Join us as we host a Sustaining Member virtual discussion with soldier-scholar and unconventional warfare expert David Kilcullen to discuss his new book The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West.

Kilcullen applies a combination of evolutionary theory and detailed field observation to ask how, and what, opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. He explains how the “snakes”—non-state threats including terrorist and guerrilla groups—adapted techniques to sidestep the West’s dominance in conventional warfare, presenting serious new challenges to America and its allies. All the while, “dragons”—state competitors such as Russia and China and “little dragons” like Iran and North Korea—were learning from the West's mistakes and taking advantage of its tunnel-vision on terrorism to develop new subversive, hybrid, and clandestine techniques of war.

Featuring:

Dr. David Kilcullen, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales; & Professor of Practice, Global Security, Arizona State University

David Kilcullen is a former soldier and diplomat, and a scholar of guerrilla warfare, terrorism, urbanisation and the future of conflict, who served 25 years for the Australian and U.S. governments. Read more.