Towards a Strategic Vision for the French Defence Budget

In spring 2008, a White Paper is due to be published in France on defence and national security. One of the objectives set by the President of the Republic for this document is the thoroughgoing reform of the Ministry of Defence. In this article, Marie Badey-André and Anne-François de Saint Salvy, who have a thorough knowledge of French security issues and of the operation of the defence ministry, express their concern at the way the French defence establishment is currently organized and financed, and call for the urgent development of a strategic vision for the defence budget.
In the first instance, they stress the imperative need for a political vision for defence that takes account both of the new status of France (as a middle-ranking power in a globalized system) and the necessary recourse to multilateral structures (particularly those of the European Union) to maintain a strategic position internationally. They go on to call for a strategic management of the defence budget that has the courage to make choices on the future shape of the French defence establishment. Lastly, they propose various courses of action to achieve this, which consist essentially in removing the structural administrative encumbrances the Defence Ministry has to contend with (for example, by promoting joint thinking between the finance and defence ministries).
At the time of going to press in early April, the White Paper had not been published, though, even if it had, no decisions concerning budgets would have been taken. There is every chance, then, that this call for strategic thinking ahead of decisions on French defence spending will succeed in making itself heard.