Evolution of French Military Policy

Abstract

The article studies the evolution of the military-political course of the French Fifth Republic. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the four editions of the French White Paper, which are the conceptual foundations of the country’s defense and national security strategy. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the domestic political situation, international political and economic processes, as well as membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance on the formation of France’s defense policy. The methodological basis for the study of the French military policy evolution is a systematic approach: a comprehensive study of the Fifth Republic’s defense and national security strategy as parts of the global European security architecture, which consists of closely related components. In addition the authors use the concrete-historical method, as well as induction, deduction, content analysis and comparative analysis of the Fifth Republic’s regulatory and legal documentation in the field of national defense and security, which allowed identifying elements of the specifics and continuity of the military-political course of France. With the help of forecasting, as well as a statistical method based on official data from government departments and research centers, the authors assessed the state of the French Republic Armed Forces. The excessive involvement of the French armed forces in various external and internal military operations, accompanied by a reduction in the number of personnel and deterioration of their equipment, weakens of the combat potential of Paris.