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Multinational Framework

 
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Context

In order to understand the multinational framework of the army's involvement in external operations, especially since the 1990s, it is first necessary to recall that military cooperation under the aegis of politics pre-existed the multilateralism that developed in the 20th century. For the purposes of this fact sheet, we will not go back any further than the turn of the Middle Ages and the modern era, when modern states were fully formed, combining a territory, institutions, and in particular an army, as well as the awareness of a political and cultural unity: the nation. The Treaties of Westphalia (1648) gave rise to the first multinational system, which guaranteed the exclusive sovereignty of states over their territory and population, as well as the principle of balance of power, in the name of which states could ally themselves to counter the rise in power of one of their partners, which was considered a factor of imbalance. Thus, the 18th century was the century of alliances and their regular recomposition, at the beginning of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), for example, which saw France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain on the one hand, and Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover on the other. The alliance between France and Austria, which had been adversaries until then, was sealed by the first Treaty of Versailles in 1756. In 1814, the Treaty of Chaumont united Prussia, Austria, Russia and Great Britain against imperial France, which these states wanted to reduce to its 1792 borders (i.e. before the outbreak of the war between revolutionary France and the other European powers). At the end of the 19th century, the establishment of the Triple Alliance (1882: Germany, Austria, Italy) and the Triple Entente (alliance not formalized by a treaty: Great Britain, France, Russia) played a role in the extension of the tensions of the summer of 1914 to the whole continent. Thus, for more than three centuries, states in Europe have been accustomed to joining forces in military operations aimed at common interests. However, until then, these shifting alliances did not result in the creation of permanent institutions, nor did they entail the transfer of command to a higher authority, or even the delegation of command to one of the allies.

It was in the 20th century that the concept of multilateralism emerged, which is the subject of much research in the field of international relations. Defined as "the attitude that favours the multilateral settlement of world problems, in a spirit of international cooperation and compromise", it no longer reflects only the desire to preserve the balance of power, but also the search for a framework of action, particularly diplomatic and military, capable of ensuring the stability and predictability of the international system in order to preserve security and allow prosperity. In this sense, it is symbolized, among other things, by the 14-point plan of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, which led to the creation of the League of Nations in 1919. The League of Nations, which was considered a failure because it was unable to prevent the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes or the outbreak of the Second World War, did not, however, provide for the creation of a military instrument, favouring instead diplomatic solutions in the event of tensions or conflicts. It was not until the birth of the United Nations on 26 June 1945 that an international organization was given the operational means to guarantee peace. While the full expression of UN multilateralism was hampered during the Cold War by the opposition between the two great powers, it has been strengthened since the 1990s with the increase and complexity of peacekeeping operations.

Since 1945, other structures have appeared, in the framework of which the French Army has been employed on many occasions: NATO (created in 1949 in the context of the establishment of blocs and the American doctrine of containment, it did not disappear with the end of the tensions that had led to its creation, but on the contrary extended the scope of its interventions) and European defence (through the ESDP decided by the Treaty of Saint-Malo in 1998, which became the CSDP following the Lisbon Treaty in 2009).
 
 
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OPEX resources

This document is a working tool intended primarily for secondary school teachers who wish to work in depth on external operations (OPEX) in the classroom.

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Monument to the dead in OPEX

War memorial

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Somalia

Operation Oryx

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Lebanon

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Multinational Framework

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