Abstract:

This seminar will focus on why the West was so successful until World War II in Asia and Africa, and has not been able to win most of the conflicts since the Vietnam War.  Dr Chaliand will forward that the Vietnam War’s lessons have been forgotten, and that this has led to the West’s incapacity to politically succeed in irregular warfare. Dr Chaliand will point at the West’s failure to achieve victory in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan among others as going beyond just the military factors.  Despite the fall of the Soviet Union, the neo-conservative attempt of “remodeling the Greater Middle East” has served Iran, which was the final target.  Further, Afghanistan will be used as a case study where nation and state-building has not worked, and where after 15 years of military presence the US is still unable to withdraw its troops as planned. The presence of more than 8,000 US soldiers continues to be necessary to prevent the Taliban from toppling Kabul’s regime. 

About the Speaker:

Dr Gerard Chaliand is a French Strategist and Political Scientist specialized on the study or Irregular Warfare (guerillas and terrorisms). He has been over the last decades a participant observer of many conflicts in the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa and Latin American. His books include guerillas, strategies, a global history of the world and history of terrorism. From antiquity to Daesh (with A. Blin) published by UC Press Berkeley. He has spent many years in Afghanistan and Iraq.