Our military history is replete with lessons which demonstrate the importance (and the undeniable specificity) of the military administration for the maintenance of permanent, operational armed services. Forty-five years of peace have blurred public conceptions; our fellow citizens tend to see the armed services as just another ‘ordinary’ public service, neither more nor less important than any other. The legal and accounting specialists seem to have too much power over the basics of military administration.

We have seen the prevalence of a ‘key competence’ which is often difficult to define; the irresistible attraction of outsourcing and innovative financing; the quite legitimate wish to make much-needed savings and put an end to the anachronistic tribal squabbles between organic components of different services. All this amounted to salami-slicing the commissariats, to the detriment of a joint service approach towards an autonomous administration of the Services.

‘The illusion of neutrality in the choices made in the fields of administration and management’ (to quote the terms used by the Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA))⁽¹⁾ seems finally to have dissipated in the debate on the future of defence. The Ministry’s announcement on 8 April 2008 of the creation of a joint service organisation supporting human resources and general administration (SISHMG, a name which is probably temporary because it is unpronounceable) reporting to CEMA, was a pleasant surprise.