Western forces are racing to leave Afghanistan this month. France has signalled a significant scaling back of its military commitment in Mali. In Iraq, British and other Western forces no longer have any major combat role.
Twenty years after President George W Bush’s so-called War on Terror, is the era of big “boots-on-the ground” military deployments to distant warzones coming to an end?
Not yet – there is still a substantial commitment to fighting jihadists in the Sahel – but there is now a radical rethink in how these missions are conducted.
Large-scale, long-term deployments have been hugely costly, in blood, in money and in political capital at home.
