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University of California Press

Wars of the Third Kind

Conflict in Underdeveloped Countries
by Edward E. Rice (Author)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $39.95 / £34.00
Publication Date: Jun 2024
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9780520378834
Trim Size: 6 x 9
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About the Book

Most armed conflicts since World War II have been neither conventional nor nuclear, but wars of a third kind, fought in developing nations and involving guerrilla warfare. Edward E. Rice examines historical combat of this sort, including the American Revolution, the Chinese civil war, the Huk rebellion in the Philippines, and conflicts in Algeria, Vietnam, and Latin America. Rice explores the origin, organization, and motivation of these wars and the dangers they pose to the powers that get involved in them.
 
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1988.

About the Author

Edward E. Rice, who spent thirty-four years as an officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, is former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and the author of Mao's Way, which won a Commonwealth Club medal for nonfiction.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I Recurrence and Radicalization in Wars
of the Third Kind
2 The Rural and Popular Nature of Wars
of the Third Kind
3 Organization and Motivation
4 The Conversion of Guerrilla Forces into
Regular Armies
5 Conceptual Approaches to
Counterinsurgency
6 The Perils for the Powers of Small Wars
7 Reflections

Notes
Index

Reviews

“An elegantly written and carefully researched book, for which the most obvious adjective is wise. The quality of the thought and the grasp of political and social dynamics that have gone into it make it superior to most other books dealing with this sort of conflict. The importance of an appreciation of the historical roots of any conflict, as demonstrated by Rice, provides in itself a vital lesson on the perils of untutored intervention.”—Lawrence Freedman, International Affairs
 
“In his insightful, scholarly, and very readable analysis of these conflicts, the author skillfully draws upon his accumulated experience in the Foreign Service and applies a generous portion of political savvy and common sense.”—Edward Costello, Foreign Service Journal
 
“Wars of the Third Kind is a superior book—one of the very best on a very important subject. . . . Of particular interest is a fascinating chapter on the perils that await great powers who find themselves enmeshed in ‘wars of the third kind.’ This chapter should be required reading for every American policymaker.”—Col. Dennis M. Drew, USAF, Airpower Journal