Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves (ISBN 0-8330-3893-1) is a book written by Brian Michael Jenkins

Brian Michael Jenkins

Brian Michael Jenkins, born in 1942 in Chicago, is an expert on terrorism and transportation security. During his nearly four decades of analysis, Jenkins has advised governments, private corporations, the Catholic Church, the Church of England, and many other international organizations on...

, one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

. In it the author asserts that some of America's recent approaches to counterterrorism have been counterproductive.

The book is based in part on objective research, particularly as it applies to knowing the enemy, and it also includes the personal reflections of Brian Michael Jenkins, who draws on 40 years of terrorism research. Jenkins currently serves as Senior Advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation. The title Unconquerable Nation derives from a quote by the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu

Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...

, who 25 centuries ago wrote, “Being unconquerable lies with yourself.”

Unconquerable Nation was published on August 22, 2006 by the RAND Corporation.

The jihadist enterprise

Jenkins describes Islamism

Islamism

Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

 in terms of a worldwide "jihadist enterprise" directly at odds with the underpinnings of Western civilization

Western culture

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...

. His book describes several strategic principles to guide the response of the West and particularly America:

• conserving resources for a long war
• waging an effective political warfare campaign
• breaking the cycle of jihadism
  Jihadism
  Jihadism is a term to describe the renewed focus on armed jihad in radical Islamic fundamentalism....
  
  
• maintaining international cooperation
• pre-empting attempts by terrorists to launch attacks involving weapons of mass destruction
  Weapons of mass destruction
  A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
  
  
• retaliating "in kind" against any state that provides WMD to a terrorist group
• rebuilding Afghanistan
• in Iraq, finding a way to reduce "insurgent, sectarian and predatory criminal violence to a level that permits social and political progress."