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Du bon usage de la terreur

Studies
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Référence taxonomie collections
Focus Stratégique
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Références
Focus stratégique, n° 6, April 2008
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Du bon usage de la terreur
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What is the role of terror in wars in general and in asymmetric conflicts in particular? Why have democratic countries such as France and the United States been confronted to torture in Algeria and Irak? Do terrorists have to be "terrorized"? That article aims at exploring some lines of enquiry in order to answer those particularly sensitive issues.

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Du bon usage de la terreur

Decoration
Author(s)
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Marc HECKER

Intitulé du poste

Executive Director of Ifri, Editor-in-Chief of Politique étrangère, and Research Fellow at the Security Studies Center, Ifri

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Security Studies Center
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Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.

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Finland: The Ally Who Came in from the Cold

Date de publication
10 April 2026
Accroche

Among all European countries, Finland is perhaps the one whose strategic culture and military model have changed the least since the end of the Cold War. Built after the end of the Second World War to deter a potential new Soviet invasion, this model enabled Finland to serve as an example of European rearmament.

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Stability under Pressure. A Pakistani View on Nuclear Deterrence after Pahalgam

Date de publication
24 June 2026
Accroche

The May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis after the Pahalgam attack has generated a familiar but incomplete debate: did nuclear deterrence work, or did it merely allow both sides to fight a limited war under the nuclear shadow? The better answer is that deterrence worked at the level at which it was designed to work. It prevented a general war and an uncontrolled vertical escalation, and kept nuclear weapons in the background. But it did not prevent India from attempting to carve out space for conventional action, nor did it prevent Pakistan from responding conventionally to restore deterrence credibility.

Rabia Akhtar
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Strategic Shift in NATO’s Support for Ukraine. A Study of NSATU and PURL Initiatives

Date de publication
04 June 2026
Accroche

This study analyzes a significant transformation in NATO’s practical support to Ukraine, marked by the establishment of the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) mission and the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) funding mechanism.

Iryna KRASNOSHTAN
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French Forward Deterrence: What Is in It for the Baltic States?

Date de publication
25 May 2026
Accroche

For what may be its most significant stress test since the end of the Cold War, European deterrence is under strain. Russia’s war against Ukraine has demonstrated Moscow’s willingness to use force and its ability to combine conventional operations with nuclear signalling, coercive rhetoric, and hybrid actions. At the same time, the gradual deterioration of transatlantic relations has revived concerns about the reliability of extended deterrence.

How can this study be cited?

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Du bon usage de la terreur
Marc HECKER, « Du bon usage de la terreur », Studies, Focus Stratégique, Ifri, 30 April 2008.
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Du bon usage de la terreur

Du bon usage de la terreur