France's Wars in Chad
Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa

Examines twenty years of French military interventions in Chad and Hissène Habré's rise to power between 1960 and 1982.

Nathaniel K. Powell (Author)

9781108738620, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2022

383 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.514 kg

'… the book leaves an impression of the profound untidiness of French-Chadian affairs, and of the misplaced hubris of French African policy more generally. By then, the reader will already have made connections to more recent interventions in regions of instability that aim to contribute externally to internal security.' Roel Van Der Velde, War in History

Examining the continuous French military interventions in Chad in the two decades after its independence, this study demonstrates how France's successful counterinsurgency efforts to protect the regime of François Tombalbaye would ultimately weaken the Chadian state and encourage Libya's Muammar Gaddafi to intervene. In covering the subsequent French efforts to counter Libyan ambitions and the rise to power of Hissène Habré, one of postcolonial Africa's most brutal dictators, Nathaniel K. Powell demonstrates that French strategies aiming to prevent the collapse of authoritarian regimes had the opposite effect, exacerbating violent conflicts and foreign interventions in Chad and further afield. Based on extensive archival research to trace the causes, course, and impact of French interventions in Chad, this study offers insights and lessons for current interveners - including France - fighting a 'war on terrorism' in the Sahel whose strategies and impact parallel those of France in the 1960s–1980s.

Introduction: 1. 'Experts in decolonization'
2. Limousin
3. The claustre affair
4. The empire strikes back: French intervention and return to war
5. The return of Habré
6. Nigeria enters the scene
7. The decline and fall of the central African empire
8. Libya invades
9. Endgame
Conclusions: The collapse of a neocolonial order
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], Military history [HBW], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], African history [HBJH]