This study approaches insurgency as a form of strategy, comprising of three waves: The first running from the 1920s -1990s and dominated by Maoist "people's war" and its variants, the second running from the 1990s to the present and characterized by reliance on terrorism, the merging of insurgency and crime and increased transnationalization. The third wave, currently in its early stages, is characterized by increased innovation by insurgents in response to technological, political, strategic and informational trends.

Steven Metz identifies various aspects of the third wave of insurgency including increasing transnationalization, new extremist ideologies, network-and-node organizational forms, and crucially the integration of new technology. While the third wave is still in its early stages, this book proposes a range of alternative new insurgency strategies and predicts which will gain prominence in the future.

Steven Metz is Senior Research Professor at the U.S. Army War College, USA, and the author of Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy and over 400 articles and chapters. He is a former member of the RAND Insurgency Board and consultant to the US intelligence community.