The author

The author can be reached HERE.

Sandrine Picaud-Monnerat is the specialist, in France, for what is called the “petite guerre” (irregular warfare, partisan warfare, war in detachment...) and for light troops. She has been working on the subject for more than 25 years, in particular as far as the 18th century is concerned. She is currently pursuing her research in depth, dealing together with theory and practice of the “petite guerre”, in a larger view that stretches from the 16th century onwards up to the 19th century Europe – with some works on the mid-20th century.

Her approach of the “petite guerre” is above all operational and tactical, as closely as possible to the conduct of military campaigns and to the actions they consist of, aside from sieges and battles. She studies the strategic level too, focusing on the relations between the conduct of war and the actions of light troops, which were specialized in this indirect style of warfare. She deals also with the technical domain, including the weapons and means adapted for the purposes of the “petite guerre”.

Her works and research interests concern in particular the 18th century, by which she began her scientific experience, but they concern also the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and, to a certain extent, the First World War and the Second World War (engagement of Special Forces). In this context, aside from the 18th century, she particularly studied the writings of Clausewitz (in German) upon irregular warfare, leading to several important articles.

Her research is also focused on the War of the Austrian Succession in general, from many points of view, which have been subjects of publications, such as the history of troops, military thinking, prisoners of war, the use of artillery, the handling of supplies, the laws of war, the role of the Catholic Church in the conflict, combined operations and international relations. She has been working in particular on the history of operations and campaigns, with case studies intended for historians as well as for military personnel.

Her works also dealt with the relations between war and society in 18th century France, especially by developing an expertise on the subject of the prisoners of war, which has already lead to several conference presentations and articles.

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Her titles as an historian:
- The “Agrégation” in history, in 1995 (highest French national exam for the recruitment of teachers);
- PhD in history, defended in 2004 at the University of Nantes (France); supervisor: Professor Jean-Pierre Bois.

Sandrine Picaud-Monnerat taught the early modern history at the University of Nantes (France) between 1998 and 2004. Since then, she has been living in Switzerland and is an independent historian. Her PhD-thesis dealt with the subject of the “petite guerre” in 18th century Europe. This work was the result of a nine years’ research, and it was then abridged and updated, which lead to a reference book, “La petite guerre au XVIIIe siècle” in 2010 (See HERE).

She is a member of several associations and learned societies in the domains whose specialist she is. Among them:
- the French Commission for Military History;
- the “Société de la Sabretache” (in Paris);
- the “Association de soutien à l’armée française” - ASAF;
- the “Association pour le Rayonnement du Service Historique de la Défense” - ARSHD (in Vincennes).