Allez les bleus Charlie Edwards

June 18, 2008 | More on Conflict and security, Cooperation and coherence, Europe and Central Asia | No comments

While the national football team’s loss to Italy last night heralded the end of an era for French football and possibly Raymond Domenech tenure as coach, a new era in French national security and defence policy was being ushered in by President Sarkozy.

In a sentence: The new French white paper is a radical departure from traditional French defence policy and recommends a plethora of new policies that seek to transform internal structures of government regarding intelligence and crisis management while simultaneously articulating a shift in approach to international affairs.

It’s good, far better than the US National security’s strategy and better in some areas than the recent UK strategy. Terrorism ranks as France’s primary threat (pourquoi?).

The two key takeaways are the wholesale transformation of France’s crisis management structures and the five strategic functions of national security strategy.

The strategy offers a well worn narrative beginning with the end of the post-Cold War world and the effects of globalisation. There are some clear parallels with work done in the UK, US, Singapore and elsewhere but some notable differences. Like the UK NSS the French white paper takes an all-hazards approach, dealing with active, deliberate threats but also with the security implications of major disasters and catastrophes of a non-intentional nature.

Unlike the UK NSS which was primarily the creation of a small group of policy makers inside the Cabinet Office the French Government have put a huge amount of effort into their new strategy. The composition of the Commission included government agencies, the armed forces, parliamentarians, academia, think-tanks, independent experts and industry. And in a striking similarity with the Conservative Party’s approach, the Commission took evidence from individuals from 14 countries on 5 continents with televised and on-line hearings. Furthermore there were more than twenty in-depth field visits in defence and national security units and facilities.

For a more indepth analysis…

Three notable contrasts with the UK NSS come to mind.

First, unlike the UK version, the French white paper will serve as the foundation for downstream multi-year planning and spending decisions.

Second, while the UK NSS states that terrorism is not a strategic threat, the white paper clearly identifies Jihadism-inspired terrorism as a priority threat for the French Government and the rest of Europe but it doesn’t go into detail why this is.

Third, unlike the UK NSS – ‘defence’ takes a back seat to ‘national security’ (though a number of the French reforms are defence related). The French Government on the other hand makes clear national security includes the defence policy, but is not limited to it.

While the UK strategy focuses on principles, challenges and the response, the White Paper focuses on five strategic functions which the defence and security forces must master:

• knowledge and anticipation
• prevention
• deterrence
• protection
• intervention

In a phrase that has echos of Tom Barnett (author of the Pentagon’s new map) the white paper suggests Sarkozy et al must concentrate on a priority geographical axis from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, the Arab-Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

Elsewhere:

1. In a neat twist France’s European ambitions will remain a priority while Sarkozy commits to the renovation of NATO (which, when you think about it, is a much nicer way of saying reform). As such France wants full participation in the structures of NATO, but just in case we get over excited at this prospect, we are reminded of de Gaulle’s three main principles of membership:

• complete independence of our nuclear forces
• full freedom of assessment,
• permanent freedom of decision (meaning no French forces will be permanently placed under NATO command in peace time (what constitute peace in today’s security environment is an interesting point).

2. The white paper outlines a new format of our armed forces which will look like the following:

• An operational ground force
• An aircraft-carrier group
• A joint fleet of 300 combat aircraft

3. Like other European member states defence spending will not increase. And when it does in the future it will only be at 1% above the inflation rate and in return there will be a wholesale restructuring of staff over six or seven years and operating cost reductions in the Ministry and the armed forces

4. The white paper states that Industry (for defence) must be European

5. Like the recent British reform a Defence and National Security Council will be created and chaired by Sarkozy (think UK NSID) while a new National Intelligence Council will become one of its major bodies.

6.The role of the Parliament shall be reinforced considerably, in particular as regards the intervention of French armed forces in foreign operations, the monitoring of the orientations of the White Paper and the policy as regards bilateral defence agreements.

7. Some nice stuff about imbedding national security across the French Government through joint training and shared recruitment policies. A special course track to train external and internal intelligence personnel will be set up. In every category of the Civil Service, awareness to national security issues will be reinforced in particular for the students of the Grandes Ecoles (élite post-graduate schools for high officials (ENA), police officers (ENSP), and magistrates (ENM). The principle of mobility in public administrations will be instituted for high-potential senior officers.

8. Like the UK’s ill fated ‘civil defence force’ which won’t happen the white paper states a a civilian service corps will be created, and work will go into the organisation of a coherent and attractive array of voluntary organisations to serve the security of France;

9. A new Operational Centre for External Crisis Management will be responsible for advance planning, execution and termination of international crisis management activities (think UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat) The nationwide emergency advance warning and information systems will be overhauled and The Ministry of the Interior will establish an Inter-Ministerial Crisis Management Centre

10. The White Paper envisions three public Internet sites:

• a “public-awareness” site dealing with new risks and threats and preparing the public at large to respond to emergency situations occurring on national territory (think UK Resilience);
• a “cyber-defence” site specifically dedicated to prevention and response of cyber-attacks;
• a site dedicated to the research community in matters dealing with national security.

More on the implications for French defence soon.

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