Download or read book The Dragons and the Snakes written by David Kilcullen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 The Dragons and the Snakes, the eminent soldier-scholar David Kilcullen asks how, and what, opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. Applying a combination of evolutionary theory and detailed field observation, he explains what happened to the "snakes"-non-state threats including 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 since the Cold War has created a fitness landscape that forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies. Within the world's contemporary conflict zones, Kilcullen argues, state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, 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 will not only reshape our understanding of the West's enemies' capabilities, but will also show how we can respond given the increasing limits on US power.
Download or read book Serpent Mage written by Margaret Weis and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the four worlds Alfred has at last found his people on Chelstra, the realm of sea. But his travels have taught him to be cautious... and Alfred soon realizes his caution is justified, even among his own kind. The one person Alfred can trust is, strangely, Haplo the Patryn. But Haplo's lord has decreed all Sartan to be the enemy, and Haplo dares not go against his lord. Now the companions have arrived in a land where humans, elves, and dwarves have learned to live in peace. Unaware of an even greater threat to all the realms, it is Sartan and Patryn who will disrupt this alliance of the lesser races in their struggle to gain control of all four worlds. Only Alfred and Haplo realize that they have a much older -- and more powerful -- enemy than each other...
Download or read book The Dragons and the Snakes written by David Kilcullen and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book applies concepts from evolutionary science and military innovation to explore how state and nonstate adversaries of the Western powers have learned to defeat (or render irrelevant) the model of high-tech, expensive, precision warfare pioneered by the United States in 1991 and globally dominant since. The book begins with a historical overview of the period since the Cold War, framed by CIA Director James Woolsey's 1993 comment that "we have slain a large dragon" (the Soviet Union) "but now we find ourselves in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes, and in many ways the dragon was easier to keep track of." The book describes the selective pressures acting on adversaries as a result of the evolutionary fitness landscape created by western military dominance. It then explores ideas from social and evolutionary science - including social learning, natural selection, artificial selection, predator effects, and the distinction between concept-led peacetime innovation and wartime coevolution - to explain how adversaries adapt. It presents a series of case studies on nonstate actors (including Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Islamic State), Russia, and China, as well as sections on North Korea and Iran. The book concludes by considering how western powers can respond to the increasing ineffectiveness of their military model and examines likely strategic futures.
Download or read book King Cobra vs Komodo Dragon written by Jon Alan and published by Gray Duck Creative Works. This book was released on 2019-06-17 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s fight time for the king cobra and the Komodo dragon! One animal is The Hooded Villain, and the other animal is The Salivating Attacker. Both fighters rise up for a challenge. But which one will be crowned champion of the Hissing Fit?
Download or read book Drakon written by Daniel Ogden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the dragon or the supernatural serpent in Graeco-Roman myth and religion. It incorporates analyses, with comprehensive accounts of the rich literary and iconographic sources, for the principal dragons of myth, and discusses matters of cult and the paradoxical association of dragons and serpents with the most benign of deities.
Download or read book Snake Poems written by Francisco X. Alarcón and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For beloved writer and mentor Francisco X. Alarcón, the collection Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation was a poetic quest to reclaim a birthright. Originally published in 1992, the book propelled Alarcón to the forefront of contemporary Chicano letters. Alarcón was a stalwart student, researcher, and specialist on the lost teachings of his Indigenous ancestors. He first found their wisdom in the words of his Mexica (Aztec) grandmother and then by culling through historical texts. During a Fulbright fellowship to Mexico, Alarcón uncovered the writings of zealously religious Mexican priest Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón (1587–1646), who collected (often using extreme measures), translated, and interpreted Nahuatl spells and invocations. In Snake Poems Francisco Alarcón offered his own poetic responses, reclaiming the colonial manuscript and making it new. This special edition is a tender tribute to Alarcón, who passed away in 2016, and includes Nahuatl, Spanish, and English renditions of the 104 poems based on Nahuatl invocations and spells that have survived more than three centuries. The book opens with remembrances and testimonials about Alarcón’s impact as a writer, colleague, activist, and friend from former poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and poet and activist Odilia Galván Rodríguez, who writes, “This book is another one of those doors that [Francisco] opened and invited us to enter. Here we get to visit a snapshot in time of an ancient place of Nahuatl-speaking ancestors, and Francisco’s poetic response to what he saw through their eyes.”
Download or read book Blood Year written by David Kilcullen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2014, a resurgent and bellicose Russia took over Crimea and fueled a civil war in Eastern Ukraine; post-Saddam Iraq lost a third of its territory to an army of hyper-violent millennialists; and the peace process in Israel seemed to completely collapse. In short, the post-Cold War security order that the US had constructed after 1991 seemed to be coming apart at the seams. David Kilcullen was one of the architects of America's strategy in the late phases of the second Gulf War, and he has also spent time in Afghanistan and other hotspots. In Blood Year, he provides a wide-angle view of the current situation in the Middle East and analyzes how America and the West ended up in such dire circumstances. Kilcullen lays much of the blame on Bush's initial decision to invade Iraq (which had negative secondary effects in Afghanistan), but also takes Obama to task for simply withdrawing and adopting a "leading from behind" strategy. As events have proven, Kilcullen contends, withdrawal was a fundamentally misguided plan. The U.S. had uncorked the genie, and it had a responsibility to at least attempt to keep it under control. Instead, the U.S. is at a point where administration officials state that the losses of Ramadi and Palmyra are manageable setbacks. Kilcullen argues that the U.S. needs to re-engage in the region, whether it wants to or not, because it is largely responsible for the situation that is now unfolding. Blood Year is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding not only why the region that the U.S. invaded a dozen years ago has collapsed into utter chaos, but also what the U.S. can do to alleviate the grim situation.
Download or read book Korean Proverbs written by Bruce K. Grant and published by Salt Lake City : Moth House ; Seoul : Wu Ah Dang. This book was released on 1982 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Snake in the Glass written by Bruno Caporrimo and published by Author House. This book was released on 2010-07-09 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book ENGAGE STARTER PACK COL MARISTA ASSUNCAO written by OXFORD and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Fivetongued Firefanged Folkadotted Dragon Snake written by Anushka Ravishankar and published by Tara Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This suspense story for small children uses typography to capture the nuances of character and speech.
Download or read book The Dragon Opposites Book The Snake Shapes and Sizes Book written by Gene Yates and published by . This book was released on with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Dragon Had a Snake written by Daniel Bleise and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book George the Dragon And the Snake Attack written by Anna Abdrasilova and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once there was a girl called Lanty. She had always wanted a dragon all for herself but her Mum and Dad didn't believe in dragons... A Fantasy Adventure book written and illustrated by 7 year old twins
Download or read book Meet the Dragon written by Bill Griffiths and published by Heart of Albion. This book was released on 1996 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An erudite yet readable insight into the history of dragons, culminating in a detailed discussion of their roles in Old English literature.
Download or read book Dragon Vs Snake written by Jason Nichols and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-16 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom written by Mark Amaru Pinkham and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2011-03-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to ancient records, the patriarchs and founders of the early civilizations in Egypt, India, China, Peru, Mesopotamia, Britain, and the Americas were colonized by the Serpents of Wisdom-spiritual masters associated with the serpent-who arrived in these lands after abandoning their beloved homelands and crossing great seas. While bearing names denoting snake or dragon (such as Naga, Lung, Djedhi, Amaru, Quetzalcoatl, Adder, etc.), these Serpents of Wisdom oversaw the construction of magnificent civilizations within which they and their descendants served as the priest kings and as the enlightened heads of mystery school traditions. The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom recounts the history of these “Serpents”-where they came from, why they came, the secret wisdom they disseminated, and why they are returning now.
