Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode
Blog this item

Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife

Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam

By General Peter J. Schoomaker, John A. Nagl

(3)

| Paperback | 9780226567709

Like Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl—a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq—considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changingContinue

Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl—a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq—considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975.

In examining these two events, Nagl—the subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass—argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency.

With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians.

2 Reviews

Login or Sign Up to write a review

  • John Nagl shows his brilliance in this book, written years before our current counter-insurgency crises. He builds a model and sticks to it, examining what makes military cultures both successful and adaptive. Useful for anyone looking at operating in a conflict-heavy bureaucracy, military or othe ... (continue)

    John Nagl shows his brilliance in this book, written years before our current counter-insurgency crises. He builds a model and sticks to it, examining what makes military cultures both successful and adaptive. Useful for anyone looking at operating in a conflict-heavy bureaucracy, military or otherwise.

    Is this helpful?

    WingmanX said on Mar 1, 2008 | Add your feedback

Book Details

  • Rating:
    (3)
    • 5 stars
    • 4 stars
    • 3 stars
    • 2 stars
    • 1 star
  • English Books
  • Paperback 280 Pages
  • ISBN-10: 0226567702
  • ISBN-13: 9780226567709
  • Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
  • Pub date: Sep 15, 2005
  • Dimensions: 1484 mm x 1032 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
Improve data of this book

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780226567709 Paperback $17.00 $12.24 bn.com
$17.00 $9.99 The Book Depository
+ 1 copy tradable: 1 in USA →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.