Shadow Wars

`

Shadow Wars

Chasing Conflict in an Era of Peace

David Axe

256 pages

Hardcover

September 2013

978-1-61234-570-3

$29.95 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

September 2013

978-1-61234-571-0

$29.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

Warfare’s evolution, especially since 2001, has irrevocably changed the meaning of war. In the twentieth century—humankind’s bloodiest—231 million people died in armed conflicts. Battlefield deaths since then have been steadily declining, despite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by 2012 less than 1 person in a million dies in war every year. This drastic change has led some academics to label our era one of peace, recalling the erroneously named “Hundred Years’ Peace” or “Pax Britannica” of the nineteenth century, which nonetheless saw many violent conflicts. But war hasn’t gone extinct. It has merely evolved. In Shadow Wars, journalist David Axe tells the story of the new war era—one of insurgents and counterinsurgents, terrorists and their hunters, pirates, mercenaries, smugglers, and slavers wreaking havoc on regions where conditions are brutal, people are poor, governments are weak, and the world rarely pays attention. Axe shows us what war has become in our era of peace. The mainstream media, meanwhile, ignores it. This book profoundly challenges readers’ conceptions of war and peace in the twenty-first century.

Author Bio

David Axe is a military correspondent living in Columbia, South Carolina. Since 2005 he has reported from the U.K., Iraq, Lebanon, Japan, East Timor, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chad, Nicaragua, Kenya, Gabon, Congo and other countries. He is a regular contributor to Voice of America, AOL, Wired and many others. David is the author of the graphic novels WAR FIX and WAR IS BORING. He blogs at www.warisboring.com. David can be reached at david_axe-at-hotmail.com.

Also of Interest