According to a RAND study, over the past century war between nations has become “increasingly rare and occurs mostly at lower intensities.” US defense planning, however, is again focusing almost exclusively on peer competitors.

In modern history, the overwhelming majority of wars have been limited. The myopic focus on peer competitors that characterizes US military institutional thinking today is a mistake. The service might not have a roadmap to direct its actions after two decades of post-9/11 wars, but this character in a six-decade-old French novel is a good place to start. Raspéguy’s commentary is especially relevant to the inflection point at which US Air Force finds itself today. Time and again, once the shooting stops, a flawed peacetime logic prevails: SOF are supposedly no longer needed and the military services can go back to the business of preparing for the conventional war they hope never happens. Raspéguy’s thoughts give voice to the dilemma special operations forces (SOF) have faced after every major war. That’s the army in which I should like to fight.

The other would be the real one, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage battledress, who would not be put on display but from whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. One would be “for display, with lovely guns, tanks, little soldiers, fanfares, staffs, distinguished and doddering generals.” Success in Algeria, he argues, would need two armies. In Jean Larteguy’s 1960 novel The Centurions, Colonel Raspéguy-the fictional commander of French paratroopers during the 1954 Battle at Dien Bien Phu and again during France’s war in Algeria-reflects on the repeated failures of regular armies throughout history to effectively counter well-organized guerrilla forces.

Battlefield 2 special forces key origin