The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War

A Pulitzer Prize finalist, this book tells the inside story of a group of soldier-scholars led by General David Petraeus who worked to transform how the United States military operates and fights wars. Against resistance from within their own ranks, they sought to build an Army capable of fighting new kinds of conflicts in the post–Cold War era: smaller wars in cities and villages against insurgents and terrorists, involving not just combat but nation-building efforts. Based on secret documents, private emails, and interviews with over one hundred key figures, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The central story follows ambitious, intellectually-minded officers—including Petraeus, John Nagl, and H. R. McMaster—many connected through West Point's Social Science Department, who rose through military ranks united by ideas about fighting these wars more effectively. They formed a tight community and adapted techniques to reshape their own Army's culture and institutions. Fred Kaplan describes how these officers advanced their ideas through military bureaucracy and made them official policy. The book examines power, politics, ideas, and personalities that reshaped twenty-first-century American military doctrine. It also serves as a cautionary account of how innovative doctrine can become rigid dogma, and how strategic success at home does not guarantee success in actual conflicts abroad.