The British Way in Counter-Insurgency, 1945-1967The claim by the Ministry of Defence in 2001 that 'the experience of numerous small wars has provided the British Army with a unique insight into this demanding form of conflict' unravelled spectacularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. One important reason for that, David French suggests, was because contemporary British counter insurgency doctrine was based upon a serious misreading of the past. Until now, many observers believed that during the wars of