With a confused and ambiguous nature and aim, and lacking rigorous methodology, thinking in preparation for the White Paper on defence and national security has obscured the scope and complexity of the work required to produce a comprehensive national security policy. This would, among other things, look at the phenomena that risk fuelling national disintegration, and take advantage of the armed forces’ potential for improving social and cultural cohesion. But of course to do that they need greater visibility on the national landscape.
The White Paper and National Security Policy
The preparatory work to drafting the White Paper on defence and national security(1) has been little but an illusion, it would appear. It is not the job of a White Paper to set policy and it could even obscure the available policy choices; the aim of the work is unclear, and the motley group which makes up the committee doing this work, its timescales and working methods are ill-adapted to the complex issues involved in considering defence policy and national security, and to the rigorous approach that they require.
The fact remains that it is becoming urgent to have a national security policy worthy of the name at a time when the national and international environment is tending to confuse our comprehension of the changes that are happening around us today. It is no longer enough simply to protect our old country from the many types of shake-up which could affect it directly or otherwise. It is also becoming necessary to have a close examination of its social and cultural vulnerabilities. Implicit in this is that the State must mobilise its resources in the principal areas of activity. Where this concerns the armed forces, it is not simply a question of their operational capacity: they also have valuable social and cultural resources. We have to look at ways of using them without distracting them from their missions, but also without creating a situation where any new measures place too great a burden on the future of the forces in the French social landscape.
Ambiguities
Observations made on the preparatory work for drafting a new Defence White Paper have confused, and are still confusing, policy-making with the drafting of a White Paper. In initiating this process, the President of the Republic’s tasking letter perpetuated the ambiguity. It spoke of dramatic changes in the international environment that impose decisive choices, and of a willingness to commit to a thorough examination of our general defence policy. From this starting point, it said that the examination should lead to a White Paper which would define an overall defence concept(2)
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