The 2007 elections showed a willingness by the French people to make a break with their model of society dating from May 1968. Since that date, defence policy has been stamped with pacifist ideology. Redrafting the defence White Paper is on the agenda: it will be the chance to make this break a reality by, for example, defining the terrorist threat more pragmatically and redefining the international legal framework for intervention of France’s armed forces.
