Book Review: A. Drohan. 2016. A New Strategy for Complex Warfare: Combined Effects in East Asia
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
| Author | Duan Xiaolin |
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2347797016689395 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 143
country. Also included are measures that governments can implement to diminish
the risk of foreign fighters making their way to Syria. These steps include, but are
not limited to, introducing foreign fighter-related legislation, prohibiting or limiting
travel to Syria, increased intelligence sharing and greater efforts to combat radicali-
zation in the community (p. 196).
This appropriately leads into chapter six, which discusses the national, regional
and global efforts currently used to respond to the IS threat. While this chapter
provides an overview of who is supplying armed resources and the level of support
provided, the next chapter, ‘Conclusions and Recommendations’, draws together
the lessons learned when combating IS. It concludes with recommendations on
how to move forward against the threat using a variety of tactics, taking a multi-
pronged approach.
Overall, there is a certain amount of overlap between information provided in
the chapters; however, this duplication does not detract from the structure of the
narrative. Rather, it serves to solidify key concepts and provides a useful revision
tool when reading about a subject matter that is so content-heavy.
Additionally, the structure of this book allows it to be used as a reference guide,
depending on the intent of the reader, as the chapters have the capacity to be read
in a stand-alone fashion. Hence, the overlaps of significant information become a
critical safeguard to ensure the best coverage of useful information.
As such, the book can be likened to a handbook in that it provides a compre-
hensive reference tool of matters relating to IS and the authors have successfully
simplified and contextualized complex concepts throughout their analytical over-
view. The vast reference lists that follow each chapter are testament to the breadth
of research and knowledge that has been integrated into this piece of work, which
is evident in its reading.
The Islamic State: Combating the Caliphate without Borders is a valuable resource
that serves to educate readers who are unfamiliar with aspects of IS or, alternatively,
consolidates and builds upon the existing knowledge base of the target audience.
Its contents can be useful to a wide range of people, including scholars, policymakers,
law enforcement and those that have a general interest in the subject matter.
Robyn Cooper
Murdoch University , Perth, Australia
E-mail: robyncooper@hotmail.com
A. Drohan. 2016. A New Strategy for Complex Warfare: Combined
Effects in East Asia. New York, NY: Cambria Press. 304 pp. ISBN-13:
978-1604979206.
DOI: 10.1177/2347797016689395
Colonel Drohan’s book provides comprehensive and insightful analysis over
a new strategy in complex warfare that bridges the gap among different theories,
military doctrines and practices of strategy formulation. The book first highlights
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