Lhe start of 2024 is marked by international tensions. The sources of crisis are multiplying and carry with them risks of spiraling or extension. Such a period invites reflection: how to act while adapting the Army to the missions of tomorrow? As Chief of Staff of the Army, my objective is that the power demonstrated by our forces changes trends, contributes to resolving conflicts and creates solidarity, that it deters attacks against France, its population, its territory and its interests.
Let’s look at the world clinically. Several decades of peace, punctuated by limited deployments of expeditionary forces in crisis management missions, have led Western societies to underestimate the reality of the balance of power and the desire for power. The wars taking place before our eyes push us to question the hope which was also an ambition held since the end of the Cold War: to marginalize war to the point of making it illegal; focus the armies on crisis management; ward off violence. The project of a world order based on the sovereignty of States, international law and the settlement of disputes through negotiation is presented as contingent and Western, even defeated. Contrary to the peaceful aspirations of European countries, the conflicts that are taking place on the borders of our continent testify less to the return of war than to its permanence as an accepted method of conflict resolution. This is an observation that must be shared with our fellow citizens.
Analyzing conflicts is rich in lessons. On the ground, the return of warlike violence is evident, mirroring the weakening of international rules. This warlike violence mutates with technological development. The fantasy of modern combat, conducted entirely remotely thanks to new technologies, has dissipated. The new forms of conflict are added to the old ones without replacing them: electronic warfare is not exclusive to hand-to-hand combat in the trenches; artillery duel cyber attacks; informational manipulations of house-to-house urban combat; hypervelocity missiles low-cost drone strikes.
Change of scale
Current conflicts lead us to reconsider the notion of force volume. The time when you could change the course of history with three hundred soldiers is over. There are no more “small wars” as access to certain advanced technologies has become so democratized: the Houthi militias, supported by Iran, give an example by contesting free movement in the Red Sea with missiles high-tech anti-ship.
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