In the abundance of historiographical information on the Great War over the last twenty years, a very large number of works have addressed the question of "obedience and authority". The author proposes to follow the evolution of this theme in order to better apprehend the recent, but complex, history of a first world conflict that is still being written.

What is the connection between Enigma, the Battle of Midway, a military school in the middle of California, the recent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Mali? Perhaps none... Or perhaps there are lessons, even inspirations, that can be very useful when the risk of strategic surprise looms. A small intrusion into the secrets of the past and the teaching of languages in the digital age.

Similar to what has already been achieved in other areas such as human resources and weapons operations, methods for optimizing aircraft maintenance programs can be considered.

This will require, on the one hand, a thorough analysis of maintenance costs and a comparison of these costs with losses due to downtime. This broader concept of cost will make it possible to define relevant evaluation criteria and to quantify the levels of performance to be achieved. On the other hand, the armed forces will have to work more closely with industrialists and draw more inspiration from the methods put in place for civilian operators.

"Preparing for our uncertain world is the opposite of resigning oneself to widespread scepticism. It means striving to think well, it means making ourselves capable of developing and practicing strategies, it means finally making our bets with a clear conscience" (Edgar Morin).

"Digitisation places the Joint Chiefs of Staff within an air-land synergy without which the conduct of operations - even if they are predominantly land-based - is now difficult to conceive of". 1] It is clear that today information and communication systems (CIS) are indispensable for all modern commitments. However, this does not mean that the use of CIS in tactical operations is free of deviations. As a source of illusion and prey to certain vulnerabilities, they do not necessarily ensure the conditions for victory.

1] Principles for the use of the level 3 digitized land task force, CDEF, 2004.

A brief Israeli incursion into Jordanian territory, the battle of Karameh was undoubtedly a tactical defeat for the Jordanian forces and for Yasser Arafat's Fatah. However, the severe losses caused to the assailant turned it into a strategic victory, as it strengthened the Palestine Liberation Organization on a lasting basis.

The overconfidence of Israeli political and tactical leaders both helped to restore Jordan's confidence in its army and enabled the Palestinian resistance to establish itself as a key player in the Middle East conflict.

The media exploitation of the battle by Fatah still gives it, four decades later, a mythical dimension in the Arab world.

The digitisation of the battle space (NEB), launched in the 2000s in the Army, was to have reached maturity ten years later, not only by equipping the forces, but also and above all by ensuring user support thanks to the tactical gains obtained.

In 2012, as reflection on the transition to the info-enhancement stage [1] (the next stage of digitisation aimed at optimising the information gathered) is taking shape, the level of confidence of the NEB's tactical users is low. This trend is confirmed by the exercise analyses at levels 2 to 5 and by the various audits commissioned on the results of digitisation.

After ten years of financial, technological and human investment, the situation is bitter and the temptation among NEB tactical users to throw it away and consider info-enhancement as the ultimate technological gadget with no added value for the Joint Task Force (JTFG) or the Battle Sub-Group (BG) is great.

1] Info-enhancement: optimal exploitation of information resources enabled by new information and communication technologies.

. .. and of the global approach, by a decisive success in the American War of Independence (1775-1783)

The Marshal de Rochambeau: an exemplary personality but, in the eyes of the author, little known in our armies. Battalion Commander Courtiau describes with talent and enthusiasm the life of this exemplary military leader who also showed himself to be an enlightened citizen in this troubled period of the late eighteenth century.

Investments in high-tech military equipment allow men to expose themselves less to the enemy while continuing to inflict ever-increasing damage. However, however attractive technological advances may seem, they generate new problems both in economic and logistical terms and in terms of human relations, which may ultimately lead the military to question its actions. The point is not to deny the interest and need to modernise the technological capabilities of armies, but to identify the limits of these capabilities, since technology applied to armies is intended to be a substitute for confrontation between men and women.

The report is not new. It was formulated two years ago by the Chief of the Armed Forces Staff: "UNIFIL[1] has reached the end of what it can do militarily" [2]. 2] At the end of a struggle for influence between those in favour of disengagement and those in favour of maintaining a military presence, the President of the Republic chose a compromise solution at the beginning of the year: to reduce the French contingent on Lebanese soil by one third. This decision implicitly acknowledges the bankruptcy of UNIFIL, which, six years after its vote, is still unable to enforce its mandate. But France cannot stop there: it must now launch an international reflection on the mission of the Blue Helmets in Lebanon. Without it, UNIFIL will continue to crystallize a precarious security situation in which the only real loser remains the population of southern Lebanon.

1] The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was created in 1978. Following the July-August 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, its mandate and structures were strengthened, sometimes giving rise to the name UNIFIL Reinforced or UNIFIL II.

2] Admiral Guillaud's hearing on 6 October 2010 before the deputies of the National Defence and Armed Forces Commission

"That if I go even further, and among these diverse traits I look for the main one and the one that can summarize almost all the others, I discover that in most operations of the mind, each American appeals only to the individual effort of his reason".

Alexis de Tocqueville, "ofDemocracy in America".