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counterinsurgency wars of the period of decolonization and the “dirty wars” of the Cold War (in Algeria, Vietnam, Southern Africa, Burma, and Nicaragua), as well as the experiences of predatory dictatorships [...] what was done before us,” writes Alexis de Tocqueville on the subject of the French oc- cupation of Algeria. “The conquest,” he continues, “was a new era, and out of fear of mixing the past and the pres ent [...] of ignorance— that “profound ignorance” that Tocqueville had identified in 1837 in his “Letter on Algeria.” In it he mentions, naturally, the ignorance of languages, of the “diff er ent races” that inhabit