What we read

The ball of illusions. What France believes, what the world sees
This book is the result of a survey on the image of France abroad: by asking people all over the world about their vision of the country, we were able to find out how France is perceived abroad.

Between wars
In this autobiography, General Lecointre, former Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, recounts his military career, from the battlefields of Rwanda to Sarajevo and Afghanistan.

The Indo-Pacific. The new centre of the world
This book shows how the Indo-Pacific is a major geostrategic challenge for the 21st century: an economic engine driven by China's ambitions and the emergence of a global economy.

A world at war
The various contributions in this volume examine the war in Ukraine using tools from different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

The war on sport
This book takes stock of the political instrumentalisation of sport. To do this, the authors look back at key events such as the

The battle of Dien Bien Phu
Using 165 images from French army archives, Pierre Journoud tells the story of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. More specifically, he looks back at the
Our publications
our contributions

Japan, a laboratory for contemporary economic security
On the occasion of the study mission to Japan of the Economic Defence and Security major of the national session of the IHEDN, focus on the far-reaching and innovative action of the archipelago state in this field. The first country in the world to create a dedicated ministry, Japan aims to achieve the subtle equation of protection without protectionism.

Geopolitics of Oceania. Shifting the focus to the Pacific island states
14 September 2026 | 6.00 pm at the École militaire

IHEDN, a driving force in the rapprochement of strategic cultures in Europe
To mark Europe month and 90e anniversary of the IHEDN, focus on its historical and current role in structuring a European strategic culture. This dimension, which has been present in our training courses from the outset, has continued to grow: today, the Institute designs and organises numerous training courses for European state and institutional partners, contributing to collective reflection on security and defence issues.

The Japanese concept of economic security
This fact sheet looks at Japan's approach to economic security. It begins by highlighting the way in which the country has succeeded in structuring a dedicated institutional ecosystem in recent years, then analyses the benefits and some of the limitations of this construction. It concludes by looking at the prospects for the development of Japanese economic security arrangements in a context of change at national and international level.

Elsa Vidal: «In the Russian elite, the party of silence is in the majority».»
A quarter of a century after Vladimir Putin came to power, what do Russians think of his governance, the state of their country and the war in Ukraine? Elsa Vidal, a specialist in the former USSR, answers this question in a rigorous and well-documented essay that looks behind the Kremlin's official communication and the clichés common in the West. Interview.

The contemporary transformation of the Japanese army
This fact sheet looks at the contemporary transformation of the Japanese army. It highlights the major increase in the country's military budgets in recent years, as well as the new desire to acquire offensive capabilities. It then analyses the reasons for and some of the limitations of these singular developments, before concluding with a look at the outlook for Japan, particularly with regard to its essential alliance with the United States.