Investigating 20th century Chinese ideology through the two main elements of passionate belief and cultivation of rage, this timely book examines how Maoist thinking has influenced Western politics.

Tracing the origins of Maoist ideas in Western politics, David Martin Jones and M.L.R. Smith expertly apply the principles of strategic theory to provide an understanding of how Mao’s ideas made their way from China into Western societies where they exert a profound and little understood impact on contemporary political conduct. The book offers critical insights into key theoretical discourses and their practical applications, including: Maoism, Orientalism and post-colonial discourse theory, Maoism and the mind, and Maoism and the politics of passion. Forward-thinking in its approach, it addresses the important question of where Maoism will end, analysing the trajectory that Maoism is likely to take and what the cumulative impact of it upon Western societies may be.

“The Strategy of Maoism in the West is a provocative, probing work that maps the ongoing ideological influence of Mao’s revolutionary message beyond post-World War II Asia. The authors, well-respected strategists whose study of insurgency and terrorism has been noteworthy for their fresh and innovative thinking, have produced another work of unique erudition and perspicacity.”