Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place: The French Army, Expeditionary Warfare, and the Return of Strategic Competition

The army has been at the centre of the transformation of the French armed forces since the end of the Cold War. The key organizational challenge for the French Army has been to integrate and digest the consequences of professionalization, adopting a ‘joint’ information technology architecture and defining its own distinct service footprint in the shape of an expeditionary warfighting capacity. After three decades of expeditionary warfare, the French Army is once again evolving and pivoting toward high-intensity warfare, a new organizational challenge impacting doctrine, procurement, training, and the relationship with key allies. The new strategic environment-rendered even more obvious by the war in Ukraine-is already apparent in evolving tactics, doctrine, and capability development. This transformation, however, will take time as it challenges both the operational experience and the cultural heritage of a French Army that finds itself, more than ever, at the crossroads for defining its future role in the strategic landscape.