We have already adequately examined, along with Éric de La Maisonneuve, the book by General Vincent Desportes La guerre probable,⁽¹⁾ stressing how much we admire the proposals he made in his article ‘Getting our thinking straight'⁽²⁾ with a view to identifying ‘ways to revive strategic thinking in France’.

Not that there is anything original in this approach; the writer has been well placed, throughout the 15 years or so of his career that he has devoted to these matters, to observe at the very highest level within the Ministry of Defence the numerous and largely fruitless activities that, over the years and under successive governments, have embraced a similar goal. But ultimately, for those of us who have experienced these events from the inside, enthusiastically but often also cynically, the directive from Vincent Desportes in the introduction to that section of his article that deals with this subject cannot fail to strike home: ‘Moreover, we must reinvigorate our strategic thinking’.

General Desportes also appears to us more than somewhat indulgent when he compares the topography of strategic research in France with a constellation, which would appear to imply that one can discern within it a certain degree of organization and influence. To spin out the analogy, it would perhaps be closer to the truth to compare it with the stardust impregnated with dark energy as described by contemporary cosmology . . . and the analysis of this is well known. We ourselves produced an early example in an article published recently in a US review.⁽³⁾ Many others have followed; these have broadly confirmed the real reasons behind this situation, which are the decidedly original production and operating methods used by governing elites in France and the highly individual relations that they cultivate with the intellectual sphere in general and with academia in particular. In short, strategic research on the Anglo-Saxon model, if that is what springs to mind, develops in a context where the balance of powers and the reality of the democratic debate in these countries differ widely from that which we understand. The potency of the executive power in France and the significance of the phenomenon of the grands corps within it give a very special flavour to public debate. It could be said—with little exaggeration—that once the Left Bank énarques⁽⁴⁾ have come to an agreement with the Right Bank énarques, then the debate is over. In such a situation, there is little room for true public debate. Independent strategic research, whose true role is of course to instigate and encourage this debate, then loses much of its effectiveness.