University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy
Alma mater
Royal Military College, Duntroon
Known for
Theory and practice of counter-insurgency and conflict ethnography
Awards
United States Army Superior Civilian Service Medal[1]
David John Kilcullen FRGS (born 1967) is an Australian author, strategist, and counterinsurgency expert who is currently the non-executive chairman of Caerus Associates, a strategy and design consulting firm that he founded.[2] He is a professor at Arizona State University and at University of New South Wales, Canberra.[3]
From 2005 to 2006, he was chief strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department.[4] Kilcullen was a senior counter-insurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in 2007 and 2008, where he helped design and monitor the Iraq War troop surge.[5] He was then a special advisor for counter-insurgency to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[6] Kilcullen has been a senior fellow of the Center for a New American Security[7] and an adjunct professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.[8] Highly critical of the decision to invade Iraq, he is on record as saying "There undeniably would be no ISIS if we had not invaded Iraq."[9] Kilcullen has written six books: The Accidental Guerrilla, Counterinsurgency, Out of the Mountains, Blood Year, The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West and The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan.[9][10][11][12]
^"David Kilcullen". EastWest Institute. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^"caerusassociates.com - About - History". Caerus Associates website. Archived from the original on 9 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
^"Professor David Kilcullen | UNSW Canberra". www.unsw.adfa.edu.au. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
^Cite error: The named reference indep was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference APSA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Williams, Kenneth, ed. (2011). "State Versus Non-State Interventions in Fragile States". Rethinking: A Middle East in Transition. Middle East Institute. p. 195. ISBN 9780160901751.
^"David Kilcullen Joins CNAS as a Senior Fellow". Center for a New American Security. 19 November 2008. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
^"Counterinsurgency". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
^ ab"Former US military adviser David Kilcullen says there would be no Isis without Iraq invasion". The Independent. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
^Out of the Mountains by David Kilcullen. 3 September 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^"David Kilcullen".
^Ruthven, Malise (13 March 2020). "The Dragons and the Snakes by David Kilcullen — modern warfare's mistake". www.ft.com. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
David John Kilcullen FRGS (born 1967) is an Australian author, strategist, and counterinsurgency expert who is currently the non-executive chairman of...
ISBN 978-0-670-84218-6. Kilcullen, David. The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. (London: Hurst, 2009). Kilcullen, David. Counterinsurgency...
officers, he also hired Lt. Col. DavidKilcullen of the Australian Army, who was working for the U.S. State Department. Kilcullen upon his return from Iraq published...
of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the US State Department, DavidKilcullen, has said that "There undeniably would be no Isis if we had not invaded...
military measures, are the most effective ways to defeat that insurgency. DavidKilcullen wrote "We must distinguish Al Qa'eda and the broader militant movements...
and Pulitzer Prize winner and The Ants coauthor Bert Hölldobler. DavidKilcullen, a counterinsurgency theorist, is a professor of practice. Donald Johanson...
on military affairs." Other CNAS advisors have included John Nagl, DavidKilcullen, Andrew Exum, Thomas E. Ricks, Robert D. Kaplan, and Marc Lynch. CNAS...
of Steel Herman Kahn John Keegan – military historian Paul Kennedy DavidKilcullen Howard Kippenberger – New Zealand general and military historian Henry...
Retrieved 24 June 2016. "DoD Bloggers Roundtable Conference Call with DavidKilcullen. May 25, 2007" (PDF). defendamerica.mil. Archived from the original...
superiority is an example of jiujitsu politics. DavidKilcullen, Counterinsurgency advisor to David Petraeus during the Iraq Surge, has called this the...
Rock) in a negative light, is contradicted by DavidKilcullen in his book, The Accidental Guerrilla. Kilcullen stated that in March 2008, The fact that Kunar...
2005) as the most important reason for the decline in Iraqi violence. DavidKilcullen, General Petraeus's counterinsurgency and troop surge adviser, believes...
Marczuk, A Visionary and a Practitioner: the Bernard Kouchner vs. DavidKilcullen[1], "Defence and Strategy", vol. 2/2007 Christopher Caldwell: Communiste...
1961), American jazz pianist DavidKilcullen (born 1967), Australian author David Kilgour (1941–2022), Canadian author David R. Kingsley (1918–1944), American...
to be imperiled as long as it was aligned with the United States.” DavidKilcullen, counterinsurgency expert and adviser to commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan...
12/9/2014 Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla; DavidKilcullen Beyond Suppression: Global Perspectives on Youth Violence; Joan Serra...
from the original on 23 July 2008. Kilcullen, David (7 July 2009). "The Accidental Guerrilla: Dr DavidKilcullen". Big Ideas (Interview). Interviewed...
prominent anti-racist activist and writer; DavidKilcullen, former senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus; Evan Wolfson, civil rights attorney...
Africans Can Do About It. Penguin Books. Mills, Greg, J. Peter Pham, and DavidKilcullen (2013). "Somalia: Fixing Africa’s Most Failed State." Cape Town: Tafelberg...
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