Western armies today face a triple challenge. First, they have been involved in “wars amongst populations” for twenty-five years, having to cope with failed states, fractured societies, and irregular adversaries. Counterinsurgency (COIN) may be out of fashion, but stabilization operations remain as complex as ever. Whether for maintaining peace or countering an insurrection, military intervention cannot deliver victory on its own, yet other “global approach” actors are often either absent or ineffective, not to mention the lack of political support and the constraints posed by permanent pressure from the media.
Meanwhile, Western forces must retain the ability to conduct high-intensity operations when fighting symmetric or hybrid adversaries that benefit from training and advanced weapons. The constituent parts of military transformation tend to spread to regional powers. Accordingly, our defense systems have to stay in the technological race and incorporate into their equipments and doctrines the multiple innovations fostered by progress in intelligence gathering and miniaturisation (sensors, networks, robotics, precision ammunition, etc.).
Remaining full spectrum is also a challenge as our militaries face unprecedented constraints in terms of numbers and budgets. in addition, operational tempo has increased and enemies have toughened. The armed forces are thus being asked to achieve more with less. The political and budgetary context, especially in Europe, is likely to limit the size of militaries and the conditions of their use. It is therefore necessary in the short term to offer solutions for optimization and set the stage for a necessary military build up in the future. Established within Ifri’s Security Studies Center, the Defense Research Unit - LRD’s analysis focuses on French forces first and foremost, as well as the militaries of their main allies.
Research Fellow, Director of Ifri's Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Coordinator of the Defense Research Unit - LRD, Security Studies Center
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Military Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Associate Research Fellow, Security Studies Center
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, marked a turning point in German defense policy. After thirty years of military downsizing, the Bundeswehr found itself at an extremely low capability level just as a high-intensity war involving a great power was breaking out on Europe’s...
With a rapidly deteriorating security environment, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, internal disputes exploding into public view, and questions being raised about the scope of its security responsibilities, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) seemed to be in dire straits at the...
Since 2016, the tactical drone TB2 Bayraktar—“standard bearer” in Turkish—has received considerable media attention, particularly during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Thanks to Azerbaijan’s victory over its neighbor Armenia, the drone, manufactured by Baykar, is now a proven combat...
The Red Team Defence demonstrates the Ministry of the Armed Forces' desire to appropriate new foresight tools. Thus, brain games or serious games aim to bypass the weight of the military hierarchy, the standardisation of thoughts and cognitive biases in order to avoid strategic unthinking.
France has a historical presence in the Middle East, where it has many interests to defend: the fight against terrorism, the promotion of the arms industry, the dissemination of humanitarian values, etc. To this end, it has a number of resources at its disposal, notably military: French forces...
The use of civilian technologies on the battlefield—one of the lessons that can be drawn from recent conflicts—is attracting growing interest from the armed forces of France and other nations. The growing number of examples of effective integration of civilian technologies...
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has underlined the need to upgrade the European armed forces, the urgency of the fight against climate change—as illustrated by reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—requires the political...
After twenty years of counter-terrorism, the Ukrainian battlefield marks the renewal of so-called “high-intensity” warfare. It constitutes a major strategic turning point, reversing the contemporary model of wars involving the West.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Moscow’s initial plan was to use a “shock and awe” approach to conquer Kyiv quickly.
A "Les Jeudis de l'Ifri" videoconférence around Corentin BRUSTLEIN, Director of Ifri's Security Studies Center.
Landpower has long been dissociated from "strategic forces", as these generally refer to long-range and/or high-yield strike capabilities.However, the recent military commitments contest this notion and highlight the current and future strategic value of landpower.
This event will cross various perspectives on the strategic rationale behind capacity-building efforts, assess current and future challenges to those endeavors, and provide an overview of how the European Union and France implement it in the field and in...
Dans le cadre du cycle de séminaires "2012 La Défense en question", le Laboratoire de Recherche sur la Défense de l'Ifri (LRD), la Fondation pour la recherche stratégique (FRS) et
Déjeuner-débat strictement réservé aux entreprises membres et membres individuels bienfaiteurs de l'Ifri, sur invitation personnelle.
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An event to the attention of Ifri's corporate members, by invitation only
...De retour d'une tournée de six semaines en Irak et en Afghanistan, Montgomery McFate, anthropologue à l'origine du HTS et le Colonel Steve Fondacaro, directeur du programme HTS, présenteront les principes et les résultats de ce programme.
The frantic rate of attacks from the air seems to have contributed to the recent retreat of Ukrainian forces on the Donbas front.
Sentinel represents a watershed development in French military operations. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the number of French army soldiers actively deployed in metropolitan France roughly equals that of overseas operations. But the military establishment here is far...
The alliance is struggling to assemble four battalions to safeguard its eastern flank from a possible Russian attack. In addition, many member states are falling short of their...
One week after the terrorist attacks in Paris, the police killed two jihadists in Belgium. Officials said that the two men were coming back from Syria and were on the brink of targeting Brussels. The capital of Belgium was already targeted a few months ago: in May 2014,...
