Out of the Mountains by David Kilcullen Analysis

However, the face of world conflict is ever changing. This book is an illustration of how future wars will be like after today’s war end. David Kilcullen is an expert on future and current conflicts. He offers insight on future conflict and future cities. He also looks at the trends taking place in the world. We, therefore, should identify Our Way out Of the Mountains,” Bin Laden advised his son. Bin Laden’s statements are a sign that anytime a group attacks another there should be a new counter insurgent procedure to be taken. Echoing on Bin Laden’s message to his son, we can see that conflicts will continue even in the future and they will use a different strategy.

It is thus possible and most likely that those tactics adopted in future conflicts will be defined by the environment of that time. This is why Kilcullen analyzes future environments to see how they will affect future global wars. The Taliban forces were subsequently forced to escape to the neighboring Pakistan. Today, we have reports that claim that a new ISIS branch captured Tora Bora area which has a vast array of mountains and rocky hills. This remote mountain forest served as a hideout for al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden. We are now back to the future as we expect ISIS to be the new terror group to rise Out of the mountains”. ISIS is ensconced in the mountain and has shown that it is the new global terror group.

City Attacks Over the last couple of years, the world has witnessed a new form of attacks in cities. These attacks have been witnessed in Barcelona, Manchester, London, and Paris. Chapter 1 highlights the expected growth in population in the world by 2050. The population growth will lead to the emergence of megacities. The infrastructure in those cities will be overwhelmed. The notorious Al Shabaab group from the neighboring Somalia took the responsibility of staging the attacks. In the past, terrorists used to look for soft and easy targets. Today the world’s population has become much Urban. Many people are choosing to live in urban areas due to work commitments and the opportunities that are available in huge settlements. In the next thirty years, we expect the world to have three billion people being city dwellers in coastal cities that are in the current third world countries.

In 1993 the level of sophistication in weaponry was not as advanced as they are today. After the terrorists had landed in Mumbai, they assessed the environment in the City. They used their handlers in Pakistan to get information that would allow them to take control of the city and carry out their attacks in their preferred order as the Indian team responded. They had the internet and all media coverage to their advantage. In Somalia, the Somali militia could not get any assistance to information as they could only rely on what they saw in the Mogadishu. Each group had its form of resistance mixture by combining inhumanity with benevolence (Kilcullen, 2015). The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan is used by Kilcullen to show how a small group can rise and obtain the power to control the people like a government.

The Taliban is a political movement that is waging war in Afghanistan. From 1996 to 2001 Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban group. It enforced adherence to Islamic law and heavy penalties for those who went against sharia. It is common to see locals support terror groups that are from their areas. It provides gruesome accounts of how criminal gangs can gain control over the population. Al Qaeda is another group that made brutal attempts in asserting itself over the will of the people. It made Iraq ungovernable. How has ISIS gained control over Iraq and Syria? ISIS or the Islamic State as it is known has caused terror havoc across the world in the past few years. Former allies of Saddam Hussein Intelligence services team were also recruited in o ISIS.

ISIS has emerged as a result of the power vacuum created by the United States or rebel groups against the current regimes. They want to establish authority over the population where they feel they can do so. In the final two chapters, the conflict of connected cities and the "crowded, complex and coastal," Kilcullen will look at how he perceives future conflicts to look like. He sees that military personnel will be finding themselves trapped in situations of urban conflict, whereby the cities are well networked. Today terror has reached a global dimension because of technology. Modern terror is unpredictable and instantaneous. It hits a bigger audience because of technology. Hilary Clinton once said that the war on terror would be cases of cybersecurity technologies and cyber warfare.

We will see a day when computer hacks will target power grids ("Orlando attack: Clinton calls on tech companies to help disrupt terrorist plots | Technology | The Guardian," n. Today, however, anyone can access any device he wishes over the counter if he can meet the asking price. Imagine an age when terrorists have drones. This is the future that David Kilcullen is talking about. Other technologies that are on the forefront include covert surveillance, motion detectors, and infrared and surveillance technologies. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat are also tools that are available to the modern terrorist. ISIS has been able to use technology to its advantage today. Their terror attacks in major European cities have been difficult to control.

ISIS has used technology better than any Islamist criminal group. According to ghost security group, an organization that is a counterterrorism group noted that ISIS makes use of almost all social media applications. It uses social applications to communicate its agenda and propaganda. The concentration of people is an advantage and a disadvantage. If urban guerillas ae successful in their attacks the number of casualties or fatalities will be very high (Kipp, 2014). They offer a networked structure that Kilcullen has been talking about. Thirdly warfare targets mean of transportation, and thus terrorism will increase transportation costs and thus cause an increase in density (Miller, 2009). The effect of war in urban cities can be dire. Kilcullen does not see a big population being a great counterforce against terrorists.

He sees it as a vulnerable target for criminal members. Conclusion I support of all of Kilcullen’s view in his book Out of the mountains. Future conflicts will be staged in urban centers. Since he published the book, there has been a series of attacks in major cities across the world that has proven this book right. References Echevarria, A.  J. Imagining future war: The West's technological revolution and visions of wars to come, 1880-1914. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International. Kilcullen, D. pbk; ISBN 0415385946 Brynjar Lia, Globalisation and the Future of Terrorism: Patterns and Predictions, London and New York, Routledge, 2005; xvii + 259 pp. pbk; ISBN 0415402965. Journal of Contemporary History, 44(2), 373-376. doi:10. Orlando attack: Clinton calls on tech companies to help disrupt terrorist plots | Technology | The Guardian.

Hassan, H. OverDrive, Inc, Recorded Books, & Inc. ISIS: Inside the army of terror. New York: Regan Arts.