Battling Instability? The Recurring Logic of French Military Interventions in Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel K. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Military Interventions ◽  
French Military

The “Cuba of the West”? France's Cold War in Zaïre, 1977–1978

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-96
Author(s):  
Nathaniel K. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
The West ◽  
Mining City ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
French Military

This article discusses French support for Zaïrian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko during the Shaba crises of 1977 and 1978. During both crises, “Katangan Gendarmes” based in neighboring Angola invaded Zaire's mineral-rich Shaba Province. Direct and indirect French military interventions, including an airborne assault on the mining city of Kolwezi in 1978, helped to defeat the invaders and save Mobutu's regime. The article shows that French policymakers were drawn to Mobutu because they saw him as a bulwark against Communist expansion in Central Africa. The large Cuban military presence in Angola fueled concerns among French leaders that the Shaba invasions were a Soviet- or Cuban-inspired plot to spread instability and influence into Zaïre and beyond. These fears, which were piqued by alarming reports from French intelligence, were substantially influenced by Mobutu himself, who successfully exploited French fears to gain a de facto security umbrella that allowed him to buck broader calls for reform.

French Military Engineers in the American Colonies, 1635–1776

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie d’Orgeix
Keyword(s):  
Road Construction ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
French Antilles ◽  
Saint Domingue ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
French Military ◽  
Land Surveying

The first French military engineers in the American colonies between 1635 and 1670 did not belong to a professional corps, being officers with expertise to do military land-surveying and construct emergency defences. Between 1670 and 1691 engineers were under the discipline of Vauban who chose them for missions in Canada or the French Antilles. After 1691, until 1776, they were all ingénieurs du roi. They ranged across citadel and fort construction, cartography and town planning (especially in Louisiana and Saint Domingue).They promoted the urban grid plan, as well as harbours and road construction. With incorporation in a royal Genie corps in 1776 they became much more strictly military.

Italy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Coticchia
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
First Century ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Since the end of the bipolar era, Italy has regularly undertaken military interventions around the world, with an average of 8,000 units employed abroad in the twenty-first century. Moreover, Italy is one of the principal contributors to the UN operations. The end of the cold war represented a turning point for Italian defence, allowing for greater military dynamism. Several reforms have been approved, while public opinion changed its view regarding the armed forces. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive perspective of the process of transformation that occurred in post-cold-war Italian defence, looking at the evolution of national strategies, military doctrines, and the structure of forces. After a brief literature review, the study highlights the process of transformation of Italian defeshnce policy since 1989. Through primary and secondary sources, the chapter illustrates the main changes that occurred, the never-ending cold-war legacies, and key challenges.

Why Sovereignty Matters Despite Injustice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Support Intervention ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Base Of Support ◽  
External Intervention ◽  
Target Country

This chapter argues for greater reluctance to launch humanitarian military interventions, without appealing to any inherent value in sovereignty or autonomous political community. Instead, it appeals to the likely consequences of such intervention—both within the target country and for international relations. Miller considers four types of candidate for intervention: stable tyrannies, unstable tyrannies, popular secessions, and ongoing large-scale killing and displacement. Only in the last of these should we be disposed to support intervention according to Miller, since the likely consequences that plague the other three types are here less challenging. Stable tyrannies are usually maintained because the regime has engineered a wide base of support among elites. External overthrow thus risks unleashing violent conflict between divided groups. In unstable tyrannies internally-driven regime change is preferable. Finally, in popular secession external intervention can stoke Great Power worries about spheres of influence and inspire military build-up.

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