In 2006 they wrote a counter-insurgency manual that drew partly on Britain's colonial wars.

ECONOMIST: Britain's armed forces

Its founders included Portugal's authoritarian regime under Salazar, mired in colonial wars in various parts of Africa.

ECONOMIST: Heirs of Pericles

Some people have retorted that such a canon should also reflect the unhappier moments in the Dutch past, including colonial wars and the failure to save many Jews from the Nazis.

ECONOMIST: Living with Islam