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Politics and the military: a not very cordial agreementPublished on 20/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
GDI (2S) Vincent DESPORTES

Is it any wonder that relations are often strained at the highest level between senior political leaders and top military leaders? Certainly not: it is in their very nature to be delicate. The logic and horizons of the two orders are indeed different. War, for its part, a complex object with a life of its own as soon as it is given life, does not bend well to political will or to attempts at military control. Politicians believe that they can easily use this legitimate tool and direct it as they wish when the military knows that they can at best try to direct its course and guide it towards a necessarily imperfect exit. Provided, again, that he has sufficient freedom of action. Where does the legitimacy of military autonomy end, where does the legitimacy of political control end? These are all recurring questions when the political decision to resort to war is taken.

City, military, former military and citizenPublished on 18/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
Le GCA (2S) Jean-Claude THOMANN

It is also desirable to look at the place of the same soldier in the city, metropolis, town or village, where his relationship to his fellow citizens is less the subject of general analysis than in the case of the military.The relationship between the soldier and his fellow citizens is not so much a general and rather theoretical analysis of the "Armed Forces-Nation dialogue" as of a cohabitation marked by the proximity and the very concrete character of his position in the environment in which he lives.

Armed Forces Health Service and Public Health ServicePublished on 16/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
MGI (2S) Raymond WEY

"Military medicine is to medicine what military music is to music."

The military and the mediaPublished on 14/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
général (2S) Dominique TRINQUAND

The military fact, whether it is operational, sociological, equipment or budget-related, only appears occasionally in the media, especially when a dramatic event affects the armed forces. This interest in armies is sincere, but too sporadic. How can the military respond to this sudden expectation, but above all ensure a certain permanence of interest in the military fact? Moreover, this interest from the public and the media is combined with a fear, or rather a mistrust, of the military towards them. How can the media-military relationship be made more peaceful? These are the two questions I will try to answer. To do so, I will draw on my experience as a media worker, an experience that has led me to be often called on television and radio for several years now.

Media and armies: mutual respect or final misunderstanding?Published on 12/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
le GCA (2S) Henri PONCET

Pierre SERVENT, in his book La trahison des médias3 , invitedus to immerse ourselves in the deleterious waters of this world that both fascinates the military leader and worries him. Some, like General BIGEARD, have skillfully used it. Others have carefully avoided it. Others, finally, have suffered from it, when they have not left their careers behind.

The image of the military in the nationPublished on 10/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
Général (2S) Hubert BODIN

"Accepting to die so that innocent people may live is at the heart of a soldier's commitment." It is with these words that the President of the Republic paid tribute to Colonel BELTRAME during the ceremony of 28 March 2018 at Les Invalides. This tribute was followed, in cumulative audiences, by 3.6 million French people on television.

Public debate and military thinkingPublished on 08/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
le colonel (ER) Claude FRANC

"In the depths of Alexander's victories, we always find Aristotle. "Charles DE GAULLE -To the professional army, 1934.

The freedom of expression of the military in the public debate, while commonly accepted in Anglo-Saxon countries, is confronted, in France, as much by political prejudices inherited from the past as by internal reticence on the part of the military. However, the regulatory and even legislative measures that for a long time restricted it have gradually fallen away, so that today, although this expression is more or less free in legal terms, it remains very little used and, when it is fortuitously the case, examples abound to show that the hierarchy does not encourage it, when it does not fight it.

The place of the military in society: a multiple questionPublished on 06/04/2020

G2S File No. 25
GCA (2S) Alain BOUQUIN

Trying to give an objective and simple answer to the question of the place of the military in society is a delicate exercise. For this question is biased ...

The first bias is that of the meaning to be given to the word "place". Some will want to replace it with the word "role"; others will be tempted to reason in terms of influence. But very quickly concepts such as image, trust or recognition will come to tint the reflection with more diverse expectations.

✅ André Maurois and the armyPublished on 29/02/2020

General Military Review
Monsieur Thierry Laurent

Many French writers were combatants during the 20th century. Thierry Laurent details the eight years that André Maurois gave to the army. In his Memoirs, he is proud to have served this fine institution while being lucid about some of its dysfunctions and regretting its internal divisions.

DisappointmentPublished on 28/02/2020

Free Reflection
Colonel Christophe de LAJUDIE

Colonel BIZEUL's article on "Disappointment, diversion, confusion" gives me the opportunity to develop a broader reflection on the notion of deception, on "fashion" and on the confusion to which it is subject, a confusion that is not limited, by far, to the distinction between diversion and disappointment. The confrontation of this article and the various sources it cites with doctrinal, literary (the Larousse, the Littré, etc.), or historical sources, shows clearly that the semantic field is broad, the meanings varied, the procedures numerous and as old as the art of war.

Armée