PART I – Victory, a Western art
The conquest of Mexico – The conquest of Peru
Invading Asia by skirting Africa – The conquest of Africa and the role of Islam – The last major armed migration
CHAPTER 2 – The West’s advantage
Qualitative superiority – A divided adversary
First-hand knowledge of the field and the adversary
Time and wars of attrition – Faraway public opinion
Importance of the demographic factor
CHAPTER 3 – Colonization and “small wars”
The reappearance of guerrilla warfare
Theorizing guerrilla warfare – On the ground…
From guerrilla warfare to counterinsurgency
Great figures of the colonization era
CHAPTER 4 – The “clash of civilizations”
The role of ideology
The Sykes-Picot Agreement and Kemalist Turkey – The British and the French in the Near East – The Bolshevik Revolution facing resistance
The turning point of the 1930s
CHAPTER 5 – The end of the colonial world
From guerrilla warfare to revolutionary war
From the Indochina War to the Algerian War – Less and less effective counterinsurgencies
Việt Minh advantages and the American adversary’s mistakes – The Tet Offensive – Lessons of the Vietnam War
PART III – The Western quagmire
CHAPTER 6 – The first war in Afghanistan
Evolution of the situation in the Middle East
The Palestinian national question – Saudi Arabia’s diffusion of militant Islam – Creation of a theocratic state in Iran
From September 11 to the punitive expedition in Afghanistan
The plan to reshape the “Greater Middle East”
From the fall of Baghdad to the occupation
Fatal mistakes – The fast emergence of the insurrection – An occupant hated by all – From the civil war to US departure – Taking the toll
CHAPTER 8 – The Afghan deadlock
The international coalition side
CHAPTER 9 – The Syrian imbroglio