BOOKS
;
providing security and basic services to
“the people,” largely through civilian
development programs. We also need
to press host governments and our allies to do likewise.
In that regard, Kilcullen describes
a telling meeting between American
advisers and Iraqi national security officials. The U.S. PowerPoint presentation focused almost exclusively on
identifying and destroying “the
enemy.” The Iraqi officials’ eyes glazed
over until their turn came to speak;
when they focused their briefing on
“the people,” the Americans’ minds
then wandered off into the ether.
Given that state-on-state conflict is
decreasing, non-state actors are increasingly likely to provide the most
important challenges to our national
security for the foreseeable future. We
“got that” by the end of the Vietnam
War and used those lessons to turn
around a losing situation in El Salvador. We are still using them successfully today in Colombia. And
although it took several catastrophic
years to relearn those insights in Iraq
and Afghanistan, they will be the secret
to any success we may be able to
achieve there.
The Accidental Guerrilla is a book
that every American diplomat, military
officer, legislator and person concerned with our national security
needs to read and comprehend. We
simply cannot afford to continue reinventing the wheel.
The Three E’s
The Global Deal:
Climate Change and the
Creation of a New Era of
Progress and Prosperity
Nicholas Stern, Public Affairs, 2009,
$26.95, hardcover, 256 pages.
REVIEWED BY HARRY C. BLANEY III
David Passage, a former ambassador,
served with the CORDS program in
Vietnam and dealt with insurgencies in
Latin America and Africa for much of
his career. Since retiring from the Foreign Service in 1998, he has been a lecturer and mentor at U.S. military
schools and training facilities.
This volume is likely to be among
the most important books of the 21st
century, both for its trenchant analysis
of the impact of climate change on our
planet and for its outline of the best
way to address this tremendous threat.
Following up on his previous study,
The Economics of Climate Change: The
Stern Report (Cambridge University
Press, 2007), Stern marshals an impressive body of new data to calculate
what it would take to reach atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that might
be sustainable without catastrophic
consequences to the planet.
The book’s middle section focuses
on how national and local governments, individuals, companies and
communities can address the issue. As
Stern explains, energy conservation,
higher efficiency levels, and new approaches to buildings and infrastructure are among the most cost-effective
policies we can adopt. The key here is
the power of example, which can reinforce willingness to move forward on a
global scale.
In the final part of the book, Stern
advocates new and strengthened international structures to cope with this
threat and other global challenges. As
he acknowledges, this will require collaboration between developed and developing nations on an unprecedented
scale.
Speaking as someone who once
