Let's take an interest now with the GCA (2S) Alain BOUQUIN in the contribution of innovation, and its digital support, to our fighting tool.

Innovation seems to have become a particularly important theme in recent statements by the authorities of the Ministry of the Armed Forces: the speeches made illustrate both a strong ambition and a will to move the lines. And rightly so, because it is the primary condition for change, for questioning, for progress to be made in order to remain in a position to fulfil the missions entrusted to us, in an environment of perpetual renewal.

These soldiers, we'll have to keep training them. Lt-Gen (2S) Arnaud SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE suggested that we think about what could become of this training for combat.

"War is a chameleon whose face surprises us every time", this quote from CLAUSEWITZ is to be compared with his many attempts to define the very essence of war. This human activity is therefore at once eminently contingent, while at the same time having perennial characteristics, insensitive to fashions. The soldier remains and will remain an essential actor in the act of war. Keeping the French Army at the forefront of European armies requires French soldiers capable of controlling its invariants and adapting to its changes.

A soldier cannot be entirely a citizen like any other. That is why we can only agree with the opinion of Lt. General Alain Bouquin (2S) who advocates the maintenance of a number of measures that anchor our specificity.

To claim in 2018 that an army of excellence must have retained all the ingredients that underpin the military specificity of its members may seem like a truism. And defending this point of view is sometimes considered superfluous... so much has already been said on the subject!

However, military leaders, when they speak out, like to recall with great constancy the existential nature of this notion.

As General (2S) Olivier de BECDELIÈVRE states, it is indeed on man that everything will depend. Let us therefore examine with him the conditions necessary to meet our future needs.

For several years now, armies have enjoyed a very positive image and broad public support, which are no doubt a factor in the success of recruitment. However, this situation is based on a paradox: society tends to move in the direction of relativism and permissiveness, while the virtues of the soldier are based on personal commitment and a sense of the absolute. The soldier, coming from society and destined, sooner or later, to return to it, must practice the virtues that are proper to him, without cutting himself off from an environment which, if attached to him, does not always understand him. It is this paradox that must be managed, tomorrow as today, so that the soldier, the soldier of the army in particular, can fulfil his mission to the best of his ability, supported by a family, social and cultural environment that is favourable to him.

The future of the Army cannot be conceived solely as a national exercise. Our involvement in alliances can only grow. This is the object of the reflections of the GCA (2S) Jean-Paul PERRUCHE supported by General (2S) Dominique TRINQUAND.

The foreseeable evolution of the global security context makes it more than likely that future military operations will be international. For both political (changes in the balance of power) and economic (cost of resources and operations) reasons, France, despite the recovery of its defence budget, will see its ability to engage alone in heavy and long operations curtailed.

How do we maintain the acknowledged excellence of our Army?

By not neglecting the fundamentals, says SAG (2S) Jean-Claude THOMANN.

To envisage the future cannot, in particular with regard to the use of armed force, be done seriously without considering the past and its teachings, as it is so true that he who ignores the lessons of History condemns himself to relive the expected ones, if not the modalities. And if no commitment of forces is, strictly speaking, identical to previous ones, the fact remains that constants, principles and references are passed down through the ages with mutations in form that most often conceal a great durability of substance.

"From the past, let's not make a clean slate! "This is what General (2S) Olivier PAULUS wants to convince us through this reflection on military history.

In the summer of 2015, as soon as he took office as CEMAT, Army General Jean-Pierre BOSSER wanted a major transformation of the Army. Known as the "army in contact", the army is now in a phase of consolidation. In a world of perpetual change, where changes are increasingly rapid, we cannot rest on our laurels. We need to take the next step now and think about what the next model might look like.

Much has already been written on ethics or morals, to the point where one might think that the subject has been completely dealt with, that it is definitively closed, and that there is no point in returning to it. However, it is a subject that must be constantly put back on the drawing board because people are evolving, scientific discoveries are accelerating and fundamentally changing the situation; social and philosophical references are changing and individual rights could increasingly prevail over the notion of the common good.

...where they sometimes have to decide in the face of extraordinary situations.

In these cases, must we always obey? What are the foundations for exercising their free will?

How to prepare for such dilemmas? This is what the GCA (2S) Alain BOUQUIN invites us to think about.

A dossier devoted to military ethics cannot ignore the subject of discipline. In fact, one could write many pages without exhausting this theme, as it is at the heart of military ethics.

In 1957, in the middle of the Algerian conflict, General Pierre BILLOTTE²³ publishedan article in OuestFrance which did not go unnoticed and in which he declared:

"... In the ideological conflicts of modern warfare, victory must go to the highest ideology. One of the most effective means of victory lies precisely in the greatest respect for moral and human values, because it goes straight to the hearts of men who are temporarily hostile to you. »