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Risk in war today: illusion or reality?Published on 21/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Lieutenant-colonel JORDAN

In his campaign diaries, Rommel already in 1940 testified that "experience proves that the most daring decisions ensure the greatest promise of victory. But one must distinguish between strategic or tactical daring and the roll of the dice. He thus underlined a major virtue of the art of warfare, namely risk-taking, measured certainly, but always a source of freedom of action for the leader who knows how to use it. What is the situation today?

General Lyautey, the inventor of Soft Power? Published on 20/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
Madame Julie d’ANDURAIN

The title may seem provocative as the formula seems anachronistic at first glance and, moreover, surprising, as it would be tantamount to lending to a general officer the right to be a "General Officer".neral officer at the beginning of the twentieth century the invention of a political formula that appeared in 1990 in the pen of the American Joseph S. Nye[1]. Nevertheless. The analysis must be attempted, because in retrospect the politico-military strategy carried out by Lyautey in his time in Morocco corresponds more or less to the current definitions of Soft Power, to a greater or lesser extent to the current definitions of the "soft power". the capacity of a State to influence the behaviour of another State by non-coercive means when Hard Power (the use of coercive means ) becomes inoperative or impossible. If this definition is retained, Soft Power, or its intermediate version Smart Power[2], would thus be derivative if not degraded forms of Hard Power together with an imperial modality[3]. It is this point that we propose to analyze by placing it in the historical perspective of the reflection and action of General Hubert Lyautey in Morocco at the beginning of the 20th century.

1] Joseph Nye, "Boundto Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power", New York, Basic Books, 1990.

2] Smart Power would be a combination of Soft and Hard Power. The term was recently popularized by Hillary Clinton.

3] See the works of Pierre Vermeren which all tend to show the still real influence that Lyautey exerts on the Moroccan elites. See in particular "LaFormation des élites marocaines", Paris, La Découverte , 2002.

The Titanic Syndrome or Management in Times of CrisisPublished on 20/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Lieutenant (Air) Jean-Marc BOSC

The exercise of command, when practised in fire, touches on the extremes of human existence. The military decision-maker must therefore master the techniques of risk analysis: analysing the needs of his men, ensuring their operational preparation and their training at their workstations so that they respect established procedures in all situations. Effective skills from the point of view of the management of men, the management and identification of relevant information then take on crucial importance. These situations can be likened to the crisis situations encountered in major disasters. The study of these major tragedies is therefore full of lessons for the military leader. Lieutenant (Air) Jean-Marc BOSC gives us here a slightly updated version of an article published in 2012 in the magazine TACTICAL magazine of Editions Crépin Leblond.[1]. It analyses one of the most famous disasters of the 20th century, the sinking of the liner Titanic. Reading this text, one wonders whether all the lessons of this tragedy have been learned. Let's hope that these reflections on management can be useful to readers of the "Mili-Terre" thought book. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the editor of TACTICAL for her kind permission to share this article with our readers.

1] TACTICAL Magazine n° 5, Editions Crépin Leblond, June 2012.

Marketing and influencePublished on 19/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Chef d’escadron Benoît OLIÉ

Marketing[1 ] and military operations of influence[2] are two totally distinct arts, belonging to two different worlds. However, this is not a sufficient reason to turn one's back on an academic discipline whose teachings, although not directly transposable, can improve the design and preparation of military operations of influence, and sometimes even of an entire campaign.

1] Marketing: a set of actions whose purpose is to identify, forecast and, possibly, stimulate the needs of consumers with regard to goods and services and to adapt production and marketing to the needs thus specified (online Larousse dictionary).

2] Influence: the ability to obtain effects through action on perceptions, representations, attitudes and behaviour (Concept Interarmées 3.10 Influence; 2012).

The EMSST schooling: a crisis management rich in lessons learnedPublished on 19/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Chef de bataillon Christophe LIBERT

Beyond the simple return on investment for Defence, there is a real interest in successfully completing the EMSST course for individuals, but also for the armed forces. Lessons can be drawn on the theme of the Armed Forces-Nation bond to understand what brings together and distances military and civilians, and to understand the usefulness of creating and maintaining a network between high-level higher education and the business world.

Army culture put to the test of modernity: the leader's imagination and the sublimation of the missionPublished on 18/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Colonel (H) André THIÉBLEMONT

Since the 1970s, the Army has undergone rapid and cumulative transformations. At the same time, the great national myths were being exhausted, and French society was entering a process of individualization "to the detriment of collective disciplines" [1]. 1] Of the military thing that once shaped the national landscape and nourished the national debate, only indifference, nostalgia and vestiges remain today: old songs, street names, barracks and forts reused to house students or museum pieces.

1] On this process of individualization and its different stages, see the short article by Marcel Gauchet, "Trois figures de l'individualisme", in Le Débat, Gallimard, n°60, May-August 2010, p. 72-78.

Military command, a model for civilian management?Published on 18/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Chef d’escadrons Éric MORGAND

Military command methods are increasingly attractive to civilian managers, who are uninspired by the distortion of social ties within the company. Two values seem to catch their attention: the permanent concern for the human factor and the role of the leader, capable of making decisions in an emergency and getting people to adhere to them. For the author, however, it seems impossible to transpose the principles of military command as they are based on a specific environment, arising from the violence and uncertainty of engagement.

Strategic Land PowerPublished on 17/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Colonel Patrick TEISSERENC

Traditionally the most advanced in the Western world in terms of anticipatory thinking, be it conceptual, doctrinal, technological or of any other nature, the American military is already drawing lessons from the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts and international developments for the next thirty years. In this context, the US Army is not to be outdone, with, in particular, thinking centred on the concept of "strategic land power".

This is what Colonel Patrick Teisserenc, Head of the Liaison Detachment in the United States, describes in this briefing note, and what the US Army is doing in the field of "strategic land power".Colonel Philippe Roux, liaison officer at TRADOC, gives us a detailed account of the progress made in the discussions and the way to proceed.

Henry Humphrey Evans LLOYD, a tactician philosopherPublished on 17/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Capitaine Antoine ROUSSEL

A renowned military writer of the late 18th century, the life and work of Henry Lloyd remain largely unknown.

Ethics and Strategy: Military Thought at the Heart of Contemporary Economic IssuesPublished on 16/07/2018

military-Earth thinking notebook
le Chef d’escadrons Charles-Emmanuel DAVIET

In the economic world, there is growing interest in the notions of ethics and strategy. However, the meaning and, above all, the relationship between these two notions are not always very clear. Military thinking, which is naturally at the confluence of ethics and strategy, can help to bring these two disciplines into dialogue so that they can enrich each other.

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