Does France Have the Model?

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Over at The National Interest author Christopher S. Chivvis asks us to pause and look at how France handled an Islamic insurgency in Mali (Southwest corner of the Sahara).  The headline is "Does France Have the Master Plan to Defeat ISIS?"  The article is here.

Here are two excerpts:

The French strategy stopped a jihadist insurgency from taking over all of Mali, ejected the jihadists from the country almost entirely, and struck a major blow to their ability to threaten both the region and France itself.

In short, the French achieved on a smaller scale something very similar to what U.S. strategists hope to achieve now with operations against ISIS.  The challenge in Mali was far less complex than any operation against ISIS will be, but French success nevertheless has some important lessons for U.S. debate about how to deal with ISIS today.

Regards  —  Cliff