Introduction -- Military superiority and victory in small wars: historical observations -- The structural origins of defiance: the middle-class, the marketplace of ideas, and the normative gap -- The structural origins of tenacity: national alignment and compartmentalization -- The French war in Algeria: a strategic, political, and economic overview -- French instrumental dependence and its consequences -- The development of a normative difference in France, and its consequences -- The French struggle to contain the growth of the normative gap and the rise of the "Democratic Agenda" -- Political relevance and its consequences in France -- The Israeli War in Lebanon: a strategic, political, and economic overview -- Israeli instrumental dependence and its consequences -- The development of a normative difference in Israel, and its consequences -- The Israeli struggle to contain the growth of the normative gap and the rise of the "democratic agenda" -- Political relevance and its consequences in Israel -- Conclusion.