Relatively conservative, obsessed with tradition and often a war behind the times: this is how the armed forces are often perceived in the collective imagination. However, Olivier Schmitt sets out to deconstruct this ingrained image in his book Préparer la guerre : Stratégie, innovation et puissance militaire à l'époque contemporaine (PUF, 2024). In it, the researcher demonstrates that armies are institutions under constant pressure to change, constantly having to adapt to developments in the security environment, critical technologies and the guidelines laid down by the political authorities. To be competitive and project the international power of a State, an army must always resolve this central tension between the search for stability, guaranteeing the necessary internal cohesion, and the pursuit of change, the source of essential adaptation to the transformation of contemporary challenges. Aimed as much at the general public as at policy-makers and researchers keen to gain a better understanding of the international balance of power, Olivier Schmitt's book takes a scrupulous look at the political, organisational and strategic factors that enable military organisations to adapt to changes in their security environment.
D. from King's College London, Olivier Schmitt is Professor of Political Science at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. He is deputy editor of the European Journal of International Security and a member of the board of the Journal of Strategic Studies and the Review of International Studies. He is also a founding member of the French Association for Strategic and War Studies (AEGES), of which he was vice-president and scientific director, and a member of the board of the European Initiative for Security Studies (EISS). His current academic work focuses on issues relating to strategic and security studies in the broadest sense, as well as the role of ideas and norms in international politics.
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