The Army

As old as the Republic, the expression “Army-Nation link” began to spread in debates from the 1990s when, with the suspension of military service, the Army wanted to alert on its growing isolation within society as well as on a factual distancing of citizens from defense-related concerns. Initially used in military circles, the expression has become common nowadays, even spreading to official speeches in national education. The degradation of the international order and the rise of geopolitical threats leave less and less room for denial and carefreeness that prevailed in the early years of this century.

Under pressure from the second Trump administration, French and Europeans are also rediscovering the necessity, if not urgency, to strengthen their military capabilities. This increase represents a defense effort all the more sensitive as European states have largely neglected their armies since the end of the Cold War. In France, while the anti-military sentiment has clearly declined within society, and the recruitment campaigns of the DICoD (Delegation for Information and Communication of Defense) have never been as visible and effective, the Army paradoxically remains a relatively unknown subject to the French in its functioning as well as in its needs and evolutions. As warfare now reaches unprecedented breaking points that the military themselves have not fully understood, how to communicate to civilian society about the awareness of threats, their mutations, and the necessary moral rearmament of civilian society?

The expression “Army-Nation link” is itself questionable because it artificially distinguishes what should be one…