A New Path for Europe
The construction of the European Union is historically inseparable from the emergence, at the end of World War II, of an Atlantic world dominated by the United States. Successive enlargements and the revision of U.S. policy are undermining the concepts upon which the European Union has been built since the fall of the USSR. It is undoubtedly time to return to a path of more diverse groupings, corresponding to the levels of commitment and the interests of the states of the Old Continent.
Thierry de Montbrial, member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, is the founder and president of Ifri and the World Policy Conference.
This article is only available in French in Politique étrangère, vol. 91, n° 2, 2026.
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Thierry de MONTBRIAL
Founder and Executive Chairman of Ifri - Member of the Institut de France (Académie des Sciences morales et politiques)
On (New) War
Are the new dynamics of power assertion, the redistribution of influence, and the emergence of new technologies changing both the place of war in the everyday life of our societies and the way war is waged when it occurs? Does the obsession with conflict, combined with technical efficiency, impose upon us a state of permanent latent war? And when weapons speak, does the involvement of modern technologies and the companies that produce them revolutionize both the political decision-making process and the way people are engaged in war? These are fundamental questions raised by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and they are already shaping current thinking on military strategy and organization.
The Year He Woke
Vikas Swarup, an Indian writer and former diplomat, is the author of four novels, including Q & A (New York: Doubleday, 2005), which has been translated into 47 languages and adapted for the screen under the title Slumdog Millionaire.
Text published in Politique étrangère, Vol. 91, No. 2, 2026.
War and Technology: An Approaching Military Revolution?
Historically, technological change has altered how battles are fought but has not overturned the fundamental principles of war. However, three considerations may now represent an actual revolution: the recourse to tactical nuclear weapons, the development of software for “multi-domain operations,” and the prospect of general artificial intelligence. The organization of militaries and the use of force need to be rethought in this light.
War and Technology: An Approaching Military Revolution?
Historically, technological change has altered how battles are fought but has not overturned the fundamental principles of war. However, three considerations may now represent an actual revolution: the recourse to tactical nuclear weapons, the development of software for “multi-domain operations,” and the prospect of general artificial intelligence. The organization of militaries and the use of force need to be rethought in this light.