Wednesday 23 March
from 6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.
In "Le Temps des guépards", former military officer Michel Goya analyses France's military interventions over the last sixty years. No other country, apart from the United States, has carried out as many foreign military operations as France. In particular, the author highlights the lack of resources available to the French armed forces in relation to their stated ambitions, leading to permanent overexposure of troops. This interventionism is unique in Europe, yet there is little debate about it among politicians or the general public, who are convinced of France's universal role in the world. This is the first time that French OPEX have been analysed from this angle.
Since 1961, France has fought 19 wars on 3 continents, as well as 13 major international police operations. It is currently the only European nation fighting in the Sahel and the Middle East. It is the only country to have had soldiers permanently on the streets of its major cities for 26 years. French soldiers are the most committed in the world, and war is a permanent feature of France's Ve Republic.
However, France doesn't really know about it, because it's a series of limited operations that are often remote and peripheral. From Chad to Mali, via Lebanon, Rwanda and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of French "nomadic soldiers" have been involved in a global war to defend France's interests. Thousands of them were killed or wounded.
Michel Goya describes the "global war in pieces" waged by each President of the Republic to defend France's status as a power. He details the way in which the French armed forces have been employed during three major periods - the Cold War, globalisation and the war against armed organisations - sometimes successfully, sometimes disastrously.
It is a story that has never before been told in this way, and above all critically analysed by a historian and strategist who himself played a part in several of these engagements. It concludes with a deciphering of current perspectives.
