Nigeria, Aug. 11 -- Tony Chafer, University of Portsmouth and Gordon D. Cumming, Cardiff University

France is presenting its current involvement in the Sahel as a new, and more multilateral, form of intervention.

But is it? Does it mark a clean break with France's early postcolonial past, characterised by unilateral intervention practices? Or does it, thanks to a process called 'layering', superimpose and meld together old unilateral intervention practices with the 'newer' multilateral approach?

In looking for answers to these questions, we are reminded of the quotation by management consultant Peter Drucker, namely that

If you want to do something new, you have to stop doing something old.

This observation seems to be the key to und...