Waging counterinsurgency in Algeria : a French point of view /
Philippe Francois
- 2008
Review of France's counterinsurgency war in Algeria from 1954-1962 and some of the lessons learned. The conflict is estimated to have caused at least 300,000 deaths. Perceived intially as an internal policing matter events turned into full conflict to which French military responded harshly. Concludes that clear political objectives are essential, that force must be balanced with hearts-and-minds measures, and that in an insurgency it must be accepted that the old order cannot be reinstated.