Military defence
Military defence involves the use of armed force. It refers to the two symbolic figures identified by Raymond Aron1 as constitutive of international relations, the diplomat and the soldier: "The conduct of the diplomat-strategist [...] has the specific meaning of being dominated by the risk of war, of confronting adversaries in an incessant rivalry in which each reserves the right to resort to the ultimate reason, i.e. violence".
1 In Paix et Guerre entre les Nations, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1962, p. 28.