France and matters of defense: big talk instead of real war-readiness

In the article Les Français et les enjeux de défense, Jeanne Lebaudy from the well-known French L'Institut Montaigne reveals with crushing sincerity an extremely uncomfortable and deeply significant contradiction of today’s French and, by extension, European society: the French increasingly state that defense is one of the important problems but at the same time they flatly do not wish to embrace real consequences of this “importance”.

Back in the mid-2000s, defense was never on the list of French priorities — only 5% of the population thought about it. Today the situation is technically different: already 18% of the French call security and defense one of the two main challenges that the European Union is facing. At the first glance, it may seem that there was a serious strategic awakening of the society. But after a more careful and honest consideration, it becomes clear that this awakening remains mostly in name, superficial, and very convenient.

It is true that the French have begun to recognize the threat. 58% of them believe it is quite probable that a military conflict will affect the territory of France in the next 5 years. 73% state openly that the country is not ready for such a conflict. When it comes to specific actions and readiness for personal sacrifice, all the rhetoric immediately disappears. 54% of the French flatly reject any forced measures, be it restoration of the compulsory military service, tax increase or working more hours. Only 20% are ready to personally defend their country, 16% are willing to work more, 15% would transfer their savings for the needs of the defense industry. The real readiness for any kind of sacrifice is still minimal and highly hypothetical.

This is a classical European paradox in its purest and ugliest manifestation: high rhetorical concern combined with extremely low readiness to pay the real price for security. The French want a strong army, reliable defense, and “strategic autonomy”, but at the same time they do not want compulsory service, increase in military spendings at the expense of social programs, or sending their children to a probable war. They support the idea of the European defense in name but at the same time they trust neither the national, nor the European institutions (only 27% of the French trust the EU).

While politicians in France and Brussels actively speak about the “spirit of defense”, “re- industrialization”, “strategic autonomy” and “readiness for the war of the Future”, the French society continues to stay in the comfort of rejecting reality. The threat is recognized, the danger is discussed, but no one wants to take responsibility for defending against that threat. It looks particularly dangerous against the background of the fact that the entire Europe is moving fast towards militarization, building “military economy”, rearmament, and a doctrinal shift towards readiness for a large-scale conflict, but the public support of these processes remains superficial, fragile, and weak.

Eventually, France, as the rest of Europe, lives in a dangerous and self-destructive illusion. Citizens are concerned with security, say the right words but adamantly refuse to accept the sacrifice and inconvenience necessary for this security. This is yet another vivid and extremely alarming confirmation of the deep systemic weakness, internal degradation, and moral crisis of the European project: even in the situation of a really growing external threat the continent is unable to mobilize its society for serious, long-term and painful actions.

While the French and Europeans in general continue to believe that someone else has to defend their prosperity, comfortable way of life and social benefits, the illusion of security slowly but steadily brings closer the moment when they will have to pay the highest and hardest price. When this moment comes it will turn out that almost no one will have been truly ready for it.