The new DNA opus is here! Presented on 22 October at the École Militaire in front of a full amphitheatre, the 2026 edition extends and deepens the intellectual adventure undertaken by the Institute since 2023 and confirms the place of the ADN as an annual reference for thinking about defence and security issues in a fragmented world. Bringing together 19 contributions by 23 authors from the academic, military, diplomatic and institutional worlds, the book offers useful keys for decision-makers, professionals, listeners and the general public to understand in order to act.
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Directed by General Hervé de Courrèges, Director of the IHEDN and the Enseignement militaire supérieur (EMS), coordinated by the Département des études et de la recherche and published by Documentation française, this 2026 edition bears the evocative title «Incertitudes stratégiques», not to give in to pessimism, but to describe lucidly a world that has become more unstable and unpredictable, and to offer a rigorous analysis.
Focus on four contributions that shed light on the complexity of today's issues:
Jade Guiberteau Ricard, research assistant for the programme Military Expenditure and Arms Production from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), highlights the way in which arms exports are an instrument of power and influence. The annual report to Parliament on arms exports sheds light on the dual strategic and economic vocation of France's defence industrial policy. At a time when France has become the world's second largest arms exporter, these sales underpin the sustainability of a national defence industrial and technological base. A legacy of Gaullism, they embody the French concept of sovereignty, where power, economics and diplomacy go hand in hand. Behind the figures, the report is also a tool for democratic transparency.
In its contribution, the Vigilance and Protection against Foreign Digital Interference service (VIGINUM) sheds light on online destabilisation by analysing the actions carried out in France by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG). Since 2023, the BIG has been conducting hybrid campaigns aimed at delegitimising France's sovereignty over its overseas territories. Coordinated by digital networks (bots, trolls, hashtags) and international activist relays, this action exploits local social and identity fractures. For VIGINUM, this is an emblematic case of new forms of interference and information warfare, combining disinformation, parallel diplomacy and ideological exploitation for geopolitical ends.
Dr Clotilde Champeyrache, lecturer at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM), discusses drug trafficking as a threat to sovereignty and democracy. Drug trafficking is no longer just a health scourge, but a global strategic issue that undermines the economy, governance and social cohesion. In France, increasingly professional criminal networks are infiltrating the legal economy, financing corruption and eroding confidence in the State. With an estimated turnover of €6 billion a year, this parallel economy feeds a veritable mafia-style logic. The author calls for a paradigm shift: hit the organisations, confiscate their assets and strengthen criminal intelligence to restore democratic legitimacy and economic sovereignty.
In his article, Dr Arthur Stein, senior analyst at the IHEDN, analyses how the Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTC) group has turned its back on global jihadism in order to consolidate its power in Syria. The organisation illustrates a paradoxical development in contemporary terrorism. An offshoot of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, it has abandoned transnational objectives to refocus on a national project: the conquest of power and the stabilisation of the territory. By fighting its former jihadist partners, HTC sought to legitimise itself politically and internationally, and to become a responsible player. The author notes that this strategic shift, which is certainly more pragmatic than ideological, could make HTC the main architect of the decline of transnational jihadism in Syria.
You can find all these contributions, and many more, in National Defence Year 2026, Institut des hautes études de défense nationale and Documentation française, 190 p., €24.90 (paper) or €17.99 (digital).
