Formation/Cours

‘Defence’ historically developed as part of the sovereign domain of the state (fonction régalienne). As such, ‘Defence Policy’ is one of the major policies by which the state ensures its territorial integrity and the security of its population. This function presupposes and relies on a set of military (maintenance, training and preparation of armies) and industrial (arms industry) activities that are deployed throughout the national territory and constitute an integral part of the economic and social life of the country. In this sense, ‘Defence’ and ‘Defence Policy’ must be understood both in terms of military objectives, doctrines and traditions and as the wide range of activities through which they are constructed and materialize.

Since the 1960s, the armed forces undergo profound transformations induced by – as much as they feed them in return – contemporary geostrategic developments brought about by the advent of nuclear power, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the construction of ‘Europe’, the development of international cooperation at various levels (EU, NATO, etc.), the transformation of conflictuality, threats, as well as that of the figures of enmity and the forms of hostility. They combine a high level of demand, expectations and commitment vis-à-vis the armed forces, strong budgetary rationalizations, and important changes in strategic thinking, the practices and representations of the military and the very organization of armed forces. Above all, they seem to suggest much wider transformations regarding the relationships between the military and society on the one hand, the military and politics on the other.

In this context of strategic uncertainty and change, which this course will also analyse and interrogate, the ESPOL-CFT Joint Seminar offers to study the functioning and current challenges posed to French ‘defence policy’. In this purpose, it will draw on the ‘military viewpoint’ about ‘war’, ‘defence’ and their contemporary transformations in order, more specifically, to assess the place and function (newly) assigned to the military and its possibly reconfigured relationship to society and politics. By and large, the objective of this course is to introduce students to French defence policy: its principles, its organization, its armies.