A new writing on the social role, and thus on Field Marshal Lyautey, might seem outdated in many ways. In a very free and lively tone, the author shows us on the contrary that at the time of the EPIDE, which was already in operation in the early 1970s, theand the voluntary military service, which is beginning to increase in power, the Marshal's analysis and recommendations have never been so topical.

"Give them this fruitful conception of the modern role of the officer who has become the educator of the entire nation"[1]

LAre Marshal Lyautey's recommendations still valid in a professional army of the 21st century^?

Brandi as a reference when discussing the conduct of an officer in relation to his subordinates, "The social role of the officer"Brandi, written by Captain Lyautey, remains a founding text which sets the model of the French officer.

The gradual change of the title from Du rôle social de l'officier dans le service universel to Le rôle social de l'officier( The social role of the officer in universal service ) places the book in its global perspective, but nevertheless eludes the framework of its study. In fact, Lyautey's contribution is often cited for the necessary attention that officers must pay to their subordinates. It is forgotten that his essay is part of an officer's vocation to influence society as a whole by working on youth through universal service.

The transformation of the conscript army into a professional army renders obsolete a good part of Lyautey's proposals, which were nevertheless unanimously adopted as virtuous solutions for educating the youth of France.

Does the army still have a structuring role in the nation? Apart from defending the city, what are the officer's wishes and possibilities for action in society?

The command values promoted by Marshal Lyautey are still relevant to maintain military efficiency. On the other hand, the influence of officers on French youth must find other means to live up to the ambitions of voluntary cadres to play a structuring role in the nation.

The "social role of the officer" remains a model for defining the behaviour to be adopted by executives towards their subordinates. Successive developments since 1891 nevertheless remove any possibility of influencing the whole of French youth. The officer must then find other networks to hope to remain an influential executive for the nation.

Of course, these principles of command are always perennial!

Marshal Lyautey's recommendations are still relevant for the military sphere because they allow the creation of a collective entity capable of fulfilling its combat missions. In particular, the Army is efficient because it is built on the social relationships advocated by Lyautey, without which its deployments on the ground in hostile environments could not last.

• Training and preparation

"It's not so much in the army that you have to act, as it is on the threshold of the army."[1]

For Lyautey, the acquisition of the spirit of the officer's social role must take place in education, in school. If this axis was able to make people react in 1891, today it is totally integrated in the training of officers, notably through training courses in military behaviour. Initial training remains the privileged moment for shaping the minds of future officers. By investing in human training, students are made aware of the need to develop the bond of trust that will enable them to educate their subordinates.

Lyautey's arguments for assigning high-performing officers to training were meant to be strong in contrast to the division at the time between troop officers and officers assigned directly to the staff. Today, the idea of selecting instructors is still valid today to install a virtuous circle, "apostles gifted to the highest degree with the faculty of lighting the "sacred fire" in young souls" [2]. 2] Nevertheless, the danger of an assignment that would be too long-lasting would be to make them specialists in instruction potentially disconnected from the reality of the troop corps. It is the regular renewal of carefully selected cadres that makes it possible to maintain a real motivation while ensuring a lively and interesting update of the training carried out.

• Obeying friendship?

"The officer knows his men too little."[3]

This is the initial diagnosis to which Lyautey immediately brings the cure. The knowledge of his men leads to the obedience of friendship.

In the introduction to the Blue Book, The Exercise of Command in the Army, General Thorette[4] re-actualizes this message by indicating that a devotion as extreme as that of the profession of arms "rests on an unreserved adherence that only the command of men can elicit". The Army has this specificity of massive commitment in contact with populations and in a risky environment that requires more than any other to build entities of soldiers united behind their leaders. We find here the brotherhood of arms.

• For military efficiency first

"In the fire... material discipline, repressive means will look sad if the officer has no other secret in the service of his authority"[5]

It is therefore a question of creating the support to fulfil the mission, of setting up and maintaining human machinery that makes it possible to carry out combat missions.

Without the knowledge of its men, without education and without frank relations, one cannot achieve "a seasoned and fulfilled troop, finding full satisfaction in the exercise of its profession in a sometimes very complex operational framework" [6].

As defined by Lyautey, the relationship that the officer must have with his subordinates is completely adapted to a professional army in order to gain military efficiency. This is the primary issue he himself addresses in his essay and his method remains fully relevant today.

But the context has changed considerably since 1891.

The study of the differences in contexts makes it possible to situate the topicality of Lyautey's discourse.

• The major difference: universal military service is suspended.

The very basis of the problem has changed: national service is no more. Legally suspended, defence and citizenship days can only reasonably touch the youth of France. At best, young adults come out of the day having been made aware of new facets of the country's life, at worst they have shown up to obtain the JDC certificate, viaticum to present their driving licence.

The three-step citizenship course aims to make up for the shortcomings of this unique day but, carried out by the teachers, it does not allow the defence to be able to transmit its values. It is therefore first of all the lack of time that prevents a lasting change in the behaviour of young people.

In addition, the very "surface" of the army in the nation has shrunk. Not to mention the geographical distribution, a source of military deserts, we are no longer numerous enough to be able to address all the young people of France.

After the lack of time, it is the number that immediately removes any possibility of perpetuating the principles of Lyautey for the benefit of all young people.

• Necessary guides but multiple answers

Yesterday, young people had many struggles to grapple with, the choice between the precepts of Jules Ferry and baking, the unity or separation of Church and State.

Today, battles of ideas still exist and are carried by various intellectuals. There are many choices and possible answers: «Indulge yourselflike Stéphane Hessel, who recommends developing a spirit of resistance in the face of increasing inequalities in wealth; like Michel Serres, who recommends the development of a "spirit of resistance" to the increase in wealth inequalities; like Michel Serres, who recommends the development of a "spirit of resistance" to the increase in wealth inequalities.As Michel Serres, who is developing the new challenges of education and the new building sites that our younger generations will have to face, we can also see our children as little thumbs-up [7].

• A youth always looking for landmarks

The young contemporaries of Lyautey as well as our young citizens feel the same abandonment and idleness, but show aptitudes that often go beyond what one would have the right to expect from them.

It is the double portrait of a youth that is opposed. On the one hand, the defects of a so-called Y or Z generation with its relationship to the NICT[8] and a redefinition of the associated social relationships. On the other, the inherent qualities of youth such as commitment without ulterior motives and a real capacity for innovation. The "Generation What?"[9], through three successive reports (baccalaureate, master's degree in unemployment and master's class, life starts when), testifies both to the pessimism of this generation but also to its desire to change things.

The need to give our young people a structured framework to make them citizens capable of acting responsibly and conscientiously in their society is very real, but the army can no longer play this universal role as they enter adulthood.

A social ambition to be rediscovered and tamed

While remaining realistic, it is a question of not losing the ambition to participate. This will naturally lead to global solutions and local initiatives.

• The temptation to give up

The armies still recruit soldiers without diplomas. They remain powerful actors in the integration of young people regardless of their origins or religions. The structuring military framework always allows the development of values that transform the individuals recruited into young citizens living in a collective.

However, even by integrating reconverted soldiers, the army can no longer mathematically address all young French people to exert this influence.

Moreover, the affirmation of the social role of the armed forces remains an affirmation of principle, its primary role remaining the defence of the country. In the tumult of budgetary difficulties, the temptation is great to concentrate on operational matters and on armament programmes.

Let us reason by the absurd and imagine for a few seconds that we are leaving this desire to influence and disseminate our values. Then we will remain the guardians of the city, faithful to the country, strong in its values but simply useful to defend it. The guardian remains outside the City, his fellow citizens ignore him, do not understand him and go about their business without developing the collective spirit of those who share a common destiny. This is the conclusion of certain scenarios evoked in the report "The Army-Nation Link by 2040" [10].

10] The reticence to use the term "refocusing on the core business" is real because we consider that we are not simply "war technicians". The defence of the city is an eminently political mission; it covers a field of action that goes beyond tactics.

In the same spirit, it is as if the teacher were confined to a single mission of transmitting knowledge.

Therefore, we must take this step of affirming our social role for the nation. We cannot simply explain geopolitics and the arguments for defence; we must develop the army as an institution, a value system.

The mechanics of downsizing must not make us renounce our social ambition for the nation. We must therefore go further and define the role that the officer wants and can play in the nation.

• Accept and then adapt

First of all, the officer must be the one who carries this message of capability to his subordinates and to our leaders. The truth of our human relationships built on a high sense of service and the willingness to always elevate his subordinates to make them better are our best advertisement to convince them of the relevance of our contribution to society.

In particular, the army officer's view of the young person, aware of his difficulties and some of his shortcomings, is not the judgment but the wisdom of the person who knows that he can and must make him a better person.

Secondly, because we cannot influence all youth in terms of our own ability, we must make choices and give priority to young people in difficulty. Our attention must be focused on those who have the fewest points of reference. It is precisely because it is difficult that we must take up this mission. This no longer takes place within the framework of the armed forces-nation link; it is then the army, through its structuring power, that gives a framework to the young people who need it.

The academic trinomial[11] is already acting by carrying out many actions, all of them useful, notably with the equal opportunity plan. But a more marked rapprochement between the national education system and the army, with the officer and the teacher, the general and the rector as vectors, seems necessary. Beyond the protocol between defence and national education, it is necessary to overcome the divisions and prejudices of each camp to come together in the service of our youth and to integrate an additional partner without whom all this would have no concrete purpose: companies. The reserve then has its rightful place to be the link and coordinate the school, the army and entrepreneurship by renewing the principle of the defence cadets, focused solely on priority areas.

The values of the Army, through its action close to the people, through its behaviour in the field, militate for it to be the crucible of new experiences. The integration of this mission in the RCO [12] and PO1 [13] periods of the land forces cycle would give space to foster these initiatives.

The creation of a solid "national territory" pillar (units, VIGIPIRATE, voluntary civic service for SMA-type schemes), advocated by the CEMAT[14], takes up this desire to be present in France in contact with the population.

Beyond declarations of principle, pragmatic actions must be put forward that should bring the military closer to young people so that, through contact with each other, the civic values that can ultimately produce young people fit for life in the workplace are transmitted. Thus, the priority education networks (replacing ÉCLAIR[15] and the ZEP[16]) could be a favourable ground for developing projects in liaison with businesses. Complementary mapping would define the areas of influence of the actors already in place (EPIDE, SMA for overseas France) and identify the sectors where there is still room for action.

A possible geographical complementarity between EPIDE and the units present in the defence bases...

...for a global partnership with the REPs which would better cover the priority areas (See the table on the next page).

Even if everything leads him to abandon it, the officer will have a social role for as long as he wants. We find the spirit of Lyautey's text by subordinating the means to the end. The ambition of Lyautey's text must be rediscovered in order to form a common social role for the teacher, the entrepreneur and the officer.

His book had made emulators[17] because it is the same cause that is supported: the future of our nation.

"To all those, parents or teachers, who, by profession or vocation, are in charge of a piece of national education."[18]

For the officer, the willingness and possibilities to express such views, which go beyond the military sphere, remain to be tamed. Addressing issues that concern our society, and then influencing and convincing our leaders are, however, major challenges in order to put forward the views of responsible leaders in the nation. The creation of the Army's outreach pole within CESAT[19] is certainly animportant step in this direction.

1] Ibid.

2] Ibid.

3] Ibid.

4] Chief of Land Staff, 2002-2006.

5 ] Ibid.

6] General Bosser, Chief of the Land Staff - BLOG of the CEMAT - 07/10/2014.

[7]« Little Thumb"Le Pommier, 2012

8] New information and communication technologies.

9] Directed by Christopher Nick and Laëtitia Moreau. Broadcast on France 2 on 15 and 22 October 2013

10] What can happen? One trend scenario: "What if nothing changes", two pacifist scenarios, three warmongering scenarios. APG/HRMD Report - September 2012

11] Decentralized structures of consultation and organization, the trinomas bring together at the academic level under the authority of the rector, the military authority of the territory (the dethe military authority of the territory (the departmental military legatee of the chief town of the academy) and the president of the regional association of former auditors of the Institute of Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN).

12] Return to operational condition - period of the land forces cycle.

13 ] Operational readiness 1 - period of the land forces cycle.

14 ] Speech by General Bosser at the Officers' Presidents' Days - 16 October 2014.

[15 ] Schools, colleges and high schools program for ambition, innovation and success (Éclair)

16] Priority education areas

[17] «The social role of the engineer" - Georges Lamirand.

[18] «The social role of the officer».

19] Center for Strategic Studies of the Army

Saint-Cyrien of the promotion "General Vanbremeersch", officer of the Marine Troops specializing in Signals, Battalion Commander STACHOWSKI served as a section chief and then unit commander of the Signals Company of the 9th Marine Infantry Brigade. He served with the 5th Overseas Inter-Armed ^Regiment in Djibouti from 2008 to 2010. He is currently an instructor at the Military Training Division of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Schools.