The Third World War

To the landsman’s eye the Mediterranean Sea is the barrier that separates Europe from Africa. But the seaman understands the Mediterranean as the broad highway joining Europe to Africa’s northern littoral. From the point of view of historical and strategic geography, the barrier is not the sea but the desert. The true Africa—the dark continent—lies south of the Sahara; the northern littoral is, in truth, the southern flank of Europe.

All the great commanders and statesmen have understood these truths. Rome could not think of consolidating its organization of Europe until it had defeated the contending power of Carthage, centered on what is now Tunisia. The Arabs struck Europe through the southern flank. Their original base in the Arabian peninsula was too meager to sustain the enveloping drive into the European heartland. But though they were pushed back from France to the Iberian peninsula, their control of the southern flank inhibited free passage over the sea and kept Europe pinched and dark for centuries. Long before Borodino or even Trafalgar, Napoleon’s failure was sealed by Nelson at the mouth of the Nile. To conquer Western Europe, Hitler invaded Libya; and Eisenhower, to defend and rescue Europe, had to begin with that same southern shore. The geopolitical realities were the intense concern of Jacques Soustelle and the French officers who sought to uphold an Algérie française.

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James Burnham

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To the landsman’s eye the Mediterranean Sea is the barrier that separates Europe from Africa. But the seaman understands the Mediterranean as the broad highway joining Europe to Africa’s northern littoral. From the point of view of historical and strategic geography, the barrier is not the sea but the desert. The true Africa—the dark continent—lies south of the Sahara; the northern littoral is, in truth, the southern flank of Europe.

All the great commanders and statesmen have understood these truths. Rome could not think of consolidating its organization of Europe until it had defeated the contending power of Carthage, centered on what is now Tunisia. The Arabs struck Europe through the southern flank. Their original base in the Arabian peninsula was too meager to sustain the enveloping drive into the European heartland. But though they were pushed back from France to the Iberian peninsula, their control of the southern flank inhibited free passage over the sea and kept Europe pinched and dark for centuries. Long before Borodino or even Trafalgar, Napoleon’s failure was sealed by Nelson at the mouth of the Nile. To conquer Western Europe, Hitler invaded Libya; and Eisenhower, to defend and rescue Europe, had to begin with that same southern shore. The geopolitical realities were the intense concern of Jacques Soustelle and the French officers who sought to uphold an Algérie française.