War from the Ground Up: Twenty-First Century Combat as Politics

by Emile Simpson

Overview

As a British infantry officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles Emile Simpson completed three tours of Southern Afghanistan. Drawing on that experience, and on a range of revealing case studies ranging from Nepal to Borneo, War From The Ground Up offers a distinctive perspective on contemporary armed conflict: while most accounts of war look down at the battlefield from an academic perspective, or across it as a personal narrative, the author looks up from the battlefield to consider the concepts that put him there, and how they played out on the ground.

Simpson argues that in the Afghan conflict, and in contemporary conflicts more generally, liberal powers and their armed forces have blurred the line between military and political activity. More broadly, they have challenged the distinction between war and peace. He contends that this loss of clarity is more a response to the conditions of combat in the early wenty-first century, particularly that of globalisation, than a deliberate choice. The issue is thus not whether the West should engage in such practices, but how to manage, gain advantage from, and mitigate the risks of this evolution in warfare.

War From The Ground Up draws on personal experience from the frontline, situated in relation to historical context and strategic thought, to offer a reevaluation of the concept of war in contemporary conflict.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER MEDAL FOR MILITARY LITERATURE 2013.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190902087
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Emile Simpson served in the British Army from 2006-12 as an infantry officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles. He completed three tours in Southern Afghanistan, and also served in Brunei, Nepal, and the Falkland Islands. He previously read history at Oxford University, and was a visiting defence fellow there in 2011 on the Changing Character of War Programme.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 The Language of War
2 Clausewiztian War and Contemporary Conflict
3 Globalisation and Contemporary Conflict
4 Strategic Dialogue and Political Choice
5 Liberal Powers and Strategic Dialogue
6 Pragmatism and Operational Thought
7 British Strategy in the Borneo, 1962-6
8 Strategic Narrative
9 Ethos, Vision and Confidence in Strategic Narrative
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

'A work of such importance that it should be compulsory reading at every level in the military; from the most recently enlisted cadet to the Chief of the Defence Staff and, even more important, the members of the National Security Council who guide him. ... War From the Ground Up deserves to be seen as a coda to Clausewitz's 'On War'. But it has the advantage of being considerably shorter.' —Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement

"One of the most important assertions in this fascinating book is that the outcome of wars is now less subject to assessment by body counts than to the verdict of civilian outsiders, who make judgments with scant heed to pure military logic. ... This is the first book by an immensely intelligent and interesting young man, from whom much will be heard. He lays down principles of policy-making and war fighting for instance, the key in counter-insurgency is to match actions and words so as to influence target audiences to subscribe to a given narrative with a wisdom lacking in most contemporary foreign offices. ... Ministers would do well to read Simpson's fascinating and provocative study before they launch their next lunge into the unknown. They might then better understand how elusive in modern conflict are the concepts of winning and losing."—Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

"[A]n erudite and intelligent contribution to the literature on counterinsurgency." — Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs

"War From the Ground Up should be read by all aspiring military commanders and their Whitehall masters."—The Guardian

"Emile Simpson writes from experience as a frontline soldier who completed three tours in Afghanistan and as a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford. He combines academic rigour with practical perspective to explore the understanding and conceptualisation of modern war. [...] This important book [...] is an essential read for those interested in understanding both the conflict in Afghanistan and the contested and often confused nature of modern war." — James Denselow, International Affairs

"Filled with provocative and innovative observations about the blurring of military and political realms in kaleidoscopic environments, this book is the most perceptive account of contemporary conflict I have seen. It deserves to widely read by military practitioners and their political leaders."—Conrad Crane, lead author of FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency and Director of the U. S. Army Military History Institute

"War from the Ground Up is an interesting and important meditation on the nature of the unsatisfying wars of the modern era by a man who has seen more of them than most, former Gurkha Rifle officer Emile Simpson. It should be read by everyone interested in the current war in Afghanistan and in the likely nature of conflict for many years to come; these wars are not going away, and Simpson has done yeoman s work in helping us understand them."—John Nagl, Minerva Professor of Culture and War, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis

"A bold exploration of strategic thought, well grounded in experience. It is what one would expect of a Gurkha officer, following in the footsteps of Bill Slim, the thinking man's general." — Carter Malkasian, Afghanistan veteran with the US State Department and author of War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier

"Emile Simpson engages with a key problem in our understanding of conflict - the binary fallacy that sees war as essentially two-sided and as a precursor to political outcomes, rather than as a multi-player political ecosystem with its own logic. Simpson's analysis of the conflict in Afghanistan should be required reading for all students and practitioners of modern war." — David Kilcullen, author of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One

"I am constantly bowled over by Emile Simpson's insights. He produces lines that exude common sense and which, because they are pithy, deserve to be widely quoted and will be. Put simply, this is the most intelligent book on war that I have read for a very long time."—Hew Strachan, Oxford University

"How to do and how not to do counter-insurgency, by an expert and exceptionally thoughtful practitioner. Hard analysis, and happy talk-free. Essential reading for anyone seriously interested in what makes success in counter-insurgency so elusive."—Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, author of Cables from Kabul: The Inside Story of the West's Afghanistan Campaign

"A work of such importance that it should be compulsory reading at every level in the military; from the most recently enlisted cadet to the Chief of the Defence Staff and, even more important, the members of the National Security Council . . . It is impossible to summarize Emile Simpson's ideas without distorting them. His own style is so muscular and aphoristic that he can concentrate complex arguments into memorable sentences that will have a life of their own. His familiarity with the work of Aristotle and the history of the English Reformation enables him to explain the requirements of a strategic narrative as effectively as his experiences in Afghanistan illuminate his understanding of the relationship between operational requirements and political objectives. In short (and here I shall really go overboard) —deserves to be seen as a coda to Clausewitz's On War. But it has the advantage of being considerably shorter."—Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement

"One of the most important assertions in this fascinating book is that the outcome of wars is now less subject to assessment by body counts than to the verdict of civilian outsiders, who make judgments with scant heed to pure military logic. ... This is the first book by an immensely intelligent and interesting young man, from whom much will be heard. He lays down principles of policy-making and war fighting for instance, the key in counter-insurgency is to match actions and words so as to influence target audiences to subscribe to a given narrative with a wisdom lacking in most contemporary foreign offices. ... Ministers would do well to read Simpson's fascinating and provocative study before they launch their next lunge into the unknown. They might then better understand how elusive in modern conflict are the concepts of winning and losing."—Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

"[A]n erudite and intelligent contribution to the literature on counterinsurgency." — Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher