Communism : Bygone, communism ? Even though this is a widely acknowledged notion, the fact is that more than a billion Chinese are still living under a communist regime, that in some Eastern European countries, large segments of the population still entertain some nostalgia for "people's democracy", and that in Western countries a form of neocommunism is developing that is attempting to emerge from alter-globalization. Ten years after the publication of the "Livre noir du communisme", which was translated into twenty-six languages and raised considerable attention and worldwide debate, the "Dictionnaire du communisme" provides a detailed analysis of the development and functioning of one of the 20^th century's major totalitarian systems. Thanks to new findings made in the former Soviet bloc's archives by the team of historians who participated in this collective opus under the guidance of Stéphane Courtois, one understands how the "communist idea" was able to achieve such a hold in the USSR, in China, but also in the West and in the whole world. And to better grasp how it remains very much alive today even after the true nature of the "system" has been exposed. The temptation is still there, and with it the teleological dimension of the communist society's project. A doctrine : Leninism, an organizational model : the Party-State, a strategy and tactics driven by the requirement to seize power and retain it. Before burying communism and making a clean sweep of it, better make sure it's really dead.

Political police forces and secret services : The 20th century had the sad privilege of witnessing the development of totalitarianism's two worst models : Nazism and communism. After seizing power and in order to retain it, the leaders of those totalitarian regimes relied on fearsome secret services and political police forces. This with infamous prisons, the Cheka's Lubyanka in Moscow, the Stasi's Bautzen 2 and Hohenschönhausen in the DDR, or again the Securitate's prison at Pitesti in Romania which turned out to be, according to François Furet, "one of the worst cases of deshumanization in our time" : the torturers forced the prisoners to torture each other, this in order to deny them their victim status ! The utopian idea of a society where equal living conditions would be ensured by prohibiting individual enrichment and therefore collectively appropriating the fruits of labour, in fact materialized into the sole enrichment of Party members... Patrick Moreau, a political analyst and researcher specializing in extremes, who was a member of the Bundestag's Commission of enquiry (1994-1998) on the fall of the SED's (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) dictatorship, explains how these "organisations" worked in "At the core of the communist system: the services" (1917-1990), and how their torturers, guilty of millions of deaths, later benefited from unbelievable impunity, save for very few exceptions.

Navy: During the symposium on "The Vendeans and the sea :from high-sea fishery to the Vendée Globe race", Admiral (retd) Guy Labouérie, a member of the Académie de Marine, the author of several works of reference, did not fail to share his deep-rooted "craving for the sea" with his Vendean audience. His latest book, "Penser l'Océan avec Midway" ("Think the Ocean through Midway") is yet another act of faith in the ocean. He recalled when Jacqueline Tabarly was telling him, in 1988, how sorry she felt that "for too many years now, all of our leaders have been ignoring the sea. The French are landlubbers... despite the fact that they have coastlines, and ships... But to them the sea only means beaches to enjoy and fish to eat". Obviously, our political elites have no project there. Concerning either untapped or poorly exploited resources, they keep erring and their lack of vision as far as maritime issues are concerned proves terribly annoying. Oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface. Three men out of four live along a coastline. 80% of our supplies reach us by ship. Those figures speak for themselves. Then, how can a country like France – with three sea-fronts – care so little about the pressing need to "rethink the ocean " by coming up with a long overdue, real maritime strategy, like only great countries have done to establish their power !

For those who are interested in this subject, Admiral Labouérie has published on this site thirteen papers on the battle of Midway. A decisive battle and beyond any doubt the greatest naval & air battle of all times. A battle whose outcome enabled the United States to prevail over the Japanese fleet. Without this victory which was a turning point in the Pacific, the Americans could never have landed in Normandy in June 1944. A battle won thanks to the gallantry of thousands of men, sailors, airmen or infantrymen, some of whom deliberately sacrificed themselves, and thanks also to outstanding commanders, remarkable strategists such as admirals Ernest J. King or Chester W. Nimitz and finally thanks to the work of the secret breakers of the Japanese code, the "Rochefort group", without whom this victory would have been impossible. This retrospective is interesting because, beyond its sheer historical aspect, Admiral Labouérie has drawn lessons which, with the benefit of all these years' hindsight, can be applied to the present time. "Penser l'Océan avec Midway" is together the plea of a sailor who is fully aware of our deficiencies and a wake-up call for our attitude to change and take into consideration all the rich resources the ocean could provide us with.

Corruption in Bulgaria : According to Euro Topics, the European Union's bitter failure is now being publicly discussed in Bulgaria. This country's monitoring has been "totally unsuccessful in reducing corruption" ... "During more than six months, Bulgaria has supposedly accomplished significant progress in the fight against criminality and corruption, and the Commission pretends it closely monitored this progress."... "Neither the major criminals, nor the corrupt civil servants in the State's highest spheres will be bothered". Apparently, the termination of this monitoring will only be "a mere formality"." Whether to the World Bank, the European Parliament, the Commission, or the Bulgarian press, the finding is the same: the European subsidies (billions of euros per year) are "siphoned" at the source by mafia clans, with some boasting about it in public with complete impunity. At the eve of the coming municipal elections, there is a risk that these clans take over the country and its local finances. Before France takes its turn at the EU's presidency, President Sarkozy, when visiting Sofia on October 4, 2007, could well remind the Bulgarian authorities of their commitments and warn them against this "return to their old demons". A dispatch from François de Vries.

The Black Force : Through its annual commemoration, on 31 August 2007 in Fréjus, of the heroes of Bazeilles, France paid a solemn tribute to its Senegalese infantrymen ("tirailleurs sénégalais"), the victims of the ingratitude of a country which, after granting independence to its former colonies, attempted to make a clean sweep of several chapters of a common history despite the fact that it was written with blood, sweat and tears. During many long years, the Marsouins and Bigors of our colonial infantry have remained alone in keeping alive the flame of their sacrifice. To them, Éric Deroo and Antoine Champeaux dedicated a stirring book and shot a documentary movie based on outstanding archives from ECPAD. Their story is that of a regained soldiers' brotherhood that is now part of our collective memory. Even while these Senegalese have been cast as heroes during almost a century, albeit sometimes in a caricatural way, on a wide range of advertising media, posters, drawings, post cards, the sacrifice of this Black Force during the two World Wars is at long last acknowledged.

Cooperation with Africa : Fortunately, France has managed to maintain a close relationship with all those countries of its former colonial empire that so wished. An inescapable component of its diplomatic action, "military and defence cooperation", is the primary mission of DCMD which has set up a structural cooperation with its major partners, and this is why this directorate was integrated in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, to provide better consistency to the conduct of the French cooperation policy. In Africa, the latter mainly aims at reinforcing national, subregional and regional capabilities, which are the key elements of this continent's stabilization. To General Emmanuel Beth, this French military cooperation is a factor of stability in Africa, but also in Europe. Besides, the École militaire de spécialisation de l'outre-mer et de l'étranger, EMSOME, the alma mater of the French Marine Corps, now prevails as the European training centre for all servicemen earmarked for cooperation "overseas and abroad". This because being posted to cooperation leaves no room for improvisation, to quote Major Philippe Dupas, chief editor of "l'Ancre d'or-Bazeilles" review. To serve in a foreign country requires a good understanding of the environment into which the serviceman and his family will settle, including a thorough knowledge of its geography, history, economics and geopolitics. Thus, in 2006, EMSOME has trained twenty-five thousand students, servicemen and their spouses, civilian personnel of the Defence Ministry and other ministries, and even people from the private sector.

Space Monitoring : Unveiled at the June 2007 Paris Air Show by CDAOA, the French Air Defence Command, the GRAVES radar (Grand Réseau Adapté à la Veille Spatiale, French acronym for Large-Scale Network Adapted to Space Monitoring) is the "vanguard of French Space Defence"... as CDAOA commander Général de Corps Aérien Patrick de Rousiers explains, "the deployment of this network means that France has joined the very exclusive club of those powers that are capable of performing space surveillance, indeed on a limited scale, but independently and operationally. Recent conflicts show that space systems now play a decisive role. Outer space, which is in the process of being weaponized, has become a major strategic stake: this is why we now take its control into consideration when drafting our defence strategy. If France is intending to ensure its security, guarantee its freedom of decision and assessment, this in order to take on its international responsibilities, then it must acquire the capability to both anticipate and assess crises and conduct operations.

Information warfare: What's new in this Internet and information warfare era, in those days dominated by markets, globalization, media and morals ? In order to maintain a durable legitimacy in their control of the world's business sphere, the  Americans intend to make Information Dominance one of their highest priorities, since only  absolute control of the production of knowledge, both upstream, (training circuits) and downstream (Internet, audiovisual media) can help them to this end.. It is high time for the Europeans to draw the consequences and meet this challenge. François-Bernard Huyghe, the author of "l'ennemi à l'ère numérique" (the enemy in the digital era) is one of the authors of the collective work "la guerre cognitive ou la guerre de la connaissance" (the cognitive war or the war of knowledge) which has just been published by Éditions Lavauzelle. While competitive intelligence, following several unsuccessful implementation attempts, is definitely one of the responses to the 21^st century's stakes as shown by Alain Juillet, infostrategy is another one. In our modern world where "geo-economic and cultural influence stands on par with armed power", "the dominant role of the strongest is to express his strength by persuasion rather than by brute force". Therefore one should have a closer look at the new tools of economic warfare, as Xavier Leonetti did, to whom communication and disinformation have become "the tactical tools of expansion and dominance strategies. The factual occurrence loses its impact to its media and economic consequences".

Maritime security and globalisation: "In our closed heterogeneous world, the renewal of our thinking and of our resources should be addressed with the help of Metis, this wise and cunning Greek Goddess, by making good use of  Asia's thought and action processes and of the reasons which led all those who controlled the Oceans – a global area – to always prevail over Empires since 1763. This would enable those new indispensable instruments of world control, i.e. space, information, international trade and new technologies, to be combined in this area". Listening to the speech by Dr. Ng Eng Hen, Singapore's Second Minister for Defence, one feels, about "Strategy", that Admiral Guy Labouérie's findings resonate better in Asia than in France, this despite the fact that the latter has three sea fronts, as if we were unaware that 80 % of  the world's trading is transiting via seaways. Patrice Théry, our Asia Correspondent who has been covering IMDEX 07 Maritime Defence Exhibition, tells us about the Republic of Singapore Navy's next major programme, which involves the creation of a submarine force. This decision is motivated by Singapore's will to henceforth assert itself as a regional power.

Nicolas Sarkozy, from a foreign perspective: Many abroad tend to believe that the French have voted "more for the man than for his plan", and that France "is not yet ready for a free-market shock" such as the one that Mrs Thatcher had brought to bear upon Great Britain. As Matthew Parris elaborates in the London Times: «The nation would have willed the end while remaining unready to will the means ». In Germany, it is paradoxical to see that while "the right was looking forward to Sarkozy", it now fears that his reforms might challenge some "acquired benefits" by overhauling the pensions of some privileged categories of public employees, with all the consequences for Germany of a major political and social crisis in France. In the first instalment of a new series, Nicolas Sarkozy as the Germans see him, one week after his arrival at the Élysée Palace, Michael Hellerforth tells us which feelings and expectations are prevailing on the Rhine's East Bank, where the President's  visit to Berlin on the very day of his taking office and his "to France, Franco-German friendship is sacred" statement were particularly well appreciated. In concrete terms, the Germans are waiting for the Paris Air Show's great get-together in June, what with EADS and Airbus, to judge the new president by his actions.

French politics: By casting 53.01% of their votes to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French therefore clearly approved his programme, this following a long election campaign which can be expected to translate into younger men at the controls and a change in style. Upon arriving at the Élysée Palace, the new president appointed his Prime Minister: François Fillon, who then formed his government. Let us note  Hervé Morin's appointment as Defence Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie's as Minister of the Interior, and Bernard Kouchner 's as Minister of Foreign and European Affairs. Whatever the left-right consensus in the latter domain, defence raises in France an uncommon political debate, as shown by Emmanuel Sérot in a guidebook that proves a precious key to the uninitiated. Following Nicolas Sarkozy's solemn commitments "to remain on guard", albeit with limited budgets, will the Military Programming Law be fully implemented and the financial outlays maintained? What about the reserves? Following the professionalization, the Army reserves are bouncing back thanks to the revival spirit at ANRAT, even if they are still far from attaining their objectives... What are Nicolas Sarkozy's proposals for national defence? Antoine Philippe examines the Sarkozy candidate's declarations.  

Competitive intelligence:  Alain Juillet's vision is that of a "Strategist State" which should engage in a competitive intelligence approach, and not hesitate to reconcile the irreconcilable. While extension and globalization seem to have transformed into "destabilizing elements" for the conventional European model, how to recover a balance between economic dynamism and social dimension? Advocating a more "offensive" approach "in a globalized economy ", as required by any form of competition, rather than measures with "purely defensive features", Alain Juillet has taken his pilgrim's staff, convinced that competitive intelligence is indeed one of the responses to the 21^st century's stakes. At a time when it is beginning to be taken into consideration by numerous players, it was therefore interesting to try to synthesize the reports, articles and other reflections of all those who, in France and beyond, are attempting to overcome its myopic perception, this in order to integrate it into a geopolitical vision of the future endowing it with an altogether different dimension. After more than three years in the field since his appointment in January 2004 as "Chief Adviser on Competitive Intelligence" to the SGDN, M. Juillet has reserved for Défense review the result of his personal thinking, thereby providing some keys that should prove very useful indeed to look into the perspectives to which we had better get prepared.

Armament: The year 2006 was marked by a number of indisputable export successes by some major French and European groups. However, it was also weakened by French cockerel disputes that have proved destructive to some companies, even spoiling their public image. The key to success is sometimes due to individuals, namely to those who are able "to form around themselves a team where differences and competencies are respected". In all those domains of excellence that are linked to defence (aeronautics, space, armament), among the major global successes, we can mention MBDA: a company central to major European projects  and its chairman Marwan Lahoud, who the grapevine says might be called upon to assist Louis Gallois when Jean-Paul Gut leaves. Experts of all leanings admit that MBDA has become, in a few years, a "model integrated European company". It is probably because of all these qualities that Marwan Lahoud was selected. Upon the forming of EADS in July 2000, he was named Senior Vice President Mergers and Acquisitions and, in this capacity, was in charge of EADS's merger and acquisition operations, such as the creation of Airbus company, MBDA, Astrium, and EDSN. France still enjoys great captains of industry that Europe and sometimes the United States envy us. The next get-together at the Paris Air Show and the new Prime Minister's closing speech should confirm the declared intentions in this field of president Sarkozy – who is already familiar with the financial aspects of these dossiers - to groom the French public to a "culture of results". This article, published in Défense review, is reproduced here with the kind permission of its chief-editor, Richard Labévière.

Out-of-area operations: Among the 37,000 troops deployed outside mainland France, 15,000 Frenchmen are at present engaged in out-of-area operations (OPEX), mainly in the Balkans, in Côte d'Ivoire, in Afghanistan and in Lebanon. However, since a reinforced FINUL II was deployed to Lebanon, something has changed in crisis management, as explained by Joël-François Dumont. The rules of engagement are clearer, the instructions more explicit, and the use of armed force is not excluded any more, but is now legitimate when the terms of the mandate given by the UN – which is not subjected to interpretation – have to be respected. These new "more robust rules of engagement " are welcomed by the G2S which congratulates itself at seeing "this force" now having a shorter and more reactive chain of command, linked to a specific operations centre, fully dedicated to its mission, installed at UN Headquarters and staffed by military personnel", this all the more than "the contribution of several European Union countries should provide the new FINUL with a strong spine composed of battle-hardened units, with complementary capabilities, and enjoying a common operational culture".

Intelligence: These men are "human sensors" who belong to the 2^nd Régiment de Hussards, one of our élite regiments exclusively dedicated to human intelligence collection, a real specificity of the French Army. The only regiment of this type in the Land Forces since the 13^th Dragons Parachutistes was transferred to the Special Forces Brigade, the 2^nd Hussard belongs to the Intelligence Brigade based in Metz. This brigade regroups all the French Army's specialized intelligence sensors. The 2^nd RH's units participate in all OPEXes. Their role consists in infiltrating, generally at night and in depth, the enemy disposition with patrols composed of two light armoured vehicles which scout the enemy's rear, this in order to collect "information on key objectives", as "in their days Long Range Desert Group or Colonel Stirling's SAS patrols, including Capitaine Bergé's French company, used to proceed in the Egyptian or Cyrenaica deserts". Engaged in all the theatres of operations, the 2^nd RH is a modern regiment, considered as a model particularly well adapted to present-day crises.
 

Europe: For the first time in its history, the land of Goethe and Bismarck is led by a woman. Sometimes compared to Mrs Thatcher also known as "the iron lady", Angela Merkel is in fact of a very different disposition. With her, one could imagine "an iron hand in a velvet glove". Those who had numbered her days at the Chancellery with the great CDU-CSU-SPD coalition following Gerhard Schröder's demise had underestimated her pugnacity. She is still at the helm, "firmly and smilingly". Her counterparts have quickly realized that Angela Merkel had together a method for governing and a vision, which probably explains today her success and the consideration she inspires in Germany, but also in France, as in the rest of Europe. Her first visits have been symbolic: Brussels and Paris. Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, she reasserted her "faith" in a Europe "which chooses expressly European solutions when it wants and must act together to meet the 21^st century's challenges". To this end, she said "tolerance is required" if we want to meet the challenges posed by a "Europe which must definitely reformulate its outwards orientation", but which "must also redefine itself inside" while warranting "prosperity, growth, employment and social security" by preserving and developing "the European model of Welfare State".

Artillery: In one and a half century, French artillery came up with several inventions which brought about revolutionary changes in the art of war, among which at least twenty innovating weapon systems. Such as the famous "75 mm field gun, 1897 model", which was the first quick-fire field gun in the world. The "75", approved in 1897, created a revolution in artillery (modern field guns still use its system). From the famous 75 field gun to the information technology revolution, the step was taken by the 61^st RA Artillery Regiment, the worthy successor of the 61^st RAC's "black devils". These gunners play an essential role within the Intelligence Brigade's disposition. They operate a full range of tactical drones, slow or fast, of missiles and various field guns, as well as an all-source exploitation cell and an all-source interpretation support system (SAIM). This cell is tasked with making target dossiers, which include imagery from various sensors (satellites, drones, Mirage F1 CR, human or signal intelligence collection unit). These dossiers enable strike operations to be prepared while avoiding collateral damage or search operations to be performed with maximum effectiveness.

Disinformation: One year ago, the media focused on the former Clemenceau's case, in which  France was a victim of the "politically correct", as emphasized by Francis Vallat, the chairman of the Institut Français de la Mer. The media hullabaloo has now calmed down, and the asbestos on the former star of the French Navy is still in the process of being removed in Brest harbour. While Greenpeace France was organizing an international media campaign, committing extensive resources in the process, at the same time Greenpeace USA Executive Director John Passacantando said to France 2 cameras that the fact that the US Navy could sink the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany on 16 February 2006 off the Florida coast "was not a problem". Before that, one of the world's largest aircraft carriers, USS America, had been sunk on 14 May 2005 to a depth of 2,000 metres, 60 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina, without the ecologist organisation finding any fault there. One understands why Ben Metcalfe, the founding father of Greenpeace, comparing himself to Frankenstein's father, wrote: « I created the monster. He got rid of us ». Anyway, the public image and the credibility of Greenpeace in France have taken a serious hammering in the process. At present in India, numerous ships are having their asbestos removed, as before, amidst general indifference. One wonders where our "investigation journalists" have been hiding, and this case shows to what extent this NGO can be selective. 

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