The Dragons and the Snakes

Soldier-scholar David Kilcullen shows what opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict.   

Just a few years ago, people spoke of the US as a hyperpower - a titan stalking the world stage with more relative power than any empire in history. Yet as early as 1993, newly appointed CIA director James Woolsey pointed out that although Western powers had ‘slain a large dragon’ by defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War, they now faced a ‘bewildering variety of poisonous snakes’.   

In this book, Killcullen explains what happened to the ‘snakes’ (non-state threats, including from terrorists and guerrillas) and the ‘dragons’ (state-based competitors such as Russia and China). He explores how enemies learn under conditions of conflict, and examines how Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly defined form of warfare has forced adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies.   

State and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, Kilcullen argues, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon-systems once only available to governments.   

A counterintuitive look at this new, vastly more complex environment, The Dragons and the Snakes not only reshaped our understanding of the West’s enemies’ capabilities, but also shows how we can respond, given the increasing limits on US power.