Contenu du sommaire : S'engager

When, in the Bible, God calls a patriarch, matriarch, prophet or other individual to action, the response is always: Hinéni, “Here am I”. This is a form of absolute, total enlistment that mobilizes the entire being, raising those called above the condition of consumer of the world and offering them the opportunity to become agents of History. It requires you to give of yourself for others and, perhaps, simply to be straight-up human, to be a person of commitment, a warrior capable of shaking up the apathy of the world.

What does enlistment mean when you are a soldier in the cavalry? Drawing on his experience as trainer of future military riding instructors, Chief Warrant Officer Chaudet explains how he trains horses and then uses the horse as an “instrument” for a specifically operational purpose. Trust, progressivity and understanding.

The context of a society where personal development is seen as the ultimate goal can seem incompatible with fulfilling a vocation in the service of the community. So, we can legitimately ask what drives so many young people to join the French Army - an institution that can potentially be perceived as out of step with society. Similarly, we can ask how the army can retain the loyalty of those who have enlisted. This remains a challenge of major importance.

Every soldier begins their passage under arms with a solemn act: enlistment. Regardless of the level of studies or the channel of recruitment, the new recruit will sign a document that places him or her under the authority of a unique and exorbitantly demanding regime of common law. This is because the status of member of the French military is not laid down in the French Labour Code or in the statutes governing the civil service, but in a specific Code dedicated to national defence, stipulating all the provisions for ensuring “the defence of the country and the higher interests of the nation”. However, beyond these practical explanations, the real reason is perhaps that military enlistment is perceived as something sacred. Enlistment can be seen as both an administrative formality and a legal instrument in solemn form. Some examples from history are examined to reveal this dual nature of enlistment in the West, and especially in France.

For an applicant willing to enlist, the interview with a military psychiatrist may result in being declared unfit. It is not just about screening individuals showing psychological disorders and for whom the inability is obvious. The assessment of the psychiatrist is more complex, because it has to take into account both the applicants' potential and the capacity of the military structure to take them in.

The motto of the Groupement d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (gign), the elite police tactical unit of the French National Gendarmerie, is “Enlist for Life” Regardless of the mission that they are required to perform, the members of this unit must therefore be prepared for the possibility of death. How can this be translated in the conditions of enlistment? More to the point, how can we know that the men and women recruited to this unit are capable of risking their own lives to save the lives of others? To answer this question, the author of this article asked members of the unit of all ranks and specializations, in order to understand what their initial motivations were and what is or was their experience during what might be termed a “life in the gign”.

Julie Cros-Bosquet joined the French Army as an officer on a specialist communication contract, at a time when she knew nothing of military life. For Inflexions, she looks back on this experience and what she learned from the soldiers she worked with and describes in particular what commitment really means.

According to Paul Ricœur, commitment is rooted in approval of the fact of existing, an affirmation that is more powerful than any negative experience. Arising in response to the fact of being born, commitment tends to prolong the life-urge and to take care of the threatened being or property. By contrast, promise represents the ethics of these initiatives. Instead of an idea of the self, it is loyalty to others. It is expressed in the form that, in any given culture, confers on it the value of commitment.

Under the influence of epic literature and feudal culture, the Medieval practice of the oath is often presented as a sort of archetype of absolute commitment and chivalrous devotion. However, the historical reality is more complex and testifies both to the controlling power of the Church and the eminently political implication of the given word. The oath was long used as a means of founding or reinforcing the stability of the social pact, but its public role was gradually dissolved at the end of the Middle Ages with the constitution of the State.

In February 2018, General Daniel Menaouine was assigned the mission by the President of the French Republic to conduct a study into the implementation of universal national service (snu). In this article, he recounts this experience. He recounts how he has attempted to understand the aspirations and reasons for commitment of young people in France today He also draws in particular on his own experience.

Although the French Army is very attentive to cultivating the “warrior spirit” as a means of preparing for operations, it is also careful not to neglect morality in day-to-day life. It monitors the strengths and weaknesses of its units, as expressed in the expectations of soldiers and their families, and it makes every effort to understand the motivations of the various categories of army personnel. The aim is to be able to command with humanity and correctness, while also guaranteeing that competence and experience are retained. Statistical tools, combined with commanders' own judgements provide a detailed network of information for the Army Chief of Staff, enabling accurate analysis of even weak signals in the field of human resources. With regard to this aim, the “HR policy” is responsible for utilizing these analyses and anticipating the career paths that will prove attractive for the future generations, in the service of the operations of the future.

The family is at the very heart of the enlistment in the voluntary military service. The blood family, who accepts to step aside and then to be delighted about the progress made, the family of filial affection, who remains the source of everything, for better or for worse. The transitional family, who welcomes and accompanies the passage to adult life, that of the military cadres who share their skills and experience with the volunteers to enable them to be ready for employment. Lastly, the new family, the family who is being built step by step, the family gathering the comrades of training courses, the new colleagues in apprenticeship or in business.

On 25 November 2019, Pierre-Emmanuel Bockel died for France in Mali. In this article, his father, Jean-Marie Bockel affirms his conviction that the social commitment of the family plays an important and even determining role in the decision of each of its members to undertake commitments of whatever nature. A testimony nourished by personal examples.

Laëtitia Saint-Paul has been the member of parliament for the 4th district of Maine-et-Loire since 2017 and is also a graduate of the Saint-Cyr military academy, “De Galbert” promotion (2002-2005). She is the first soldier on active service elected to the National Assembly since 1918 and is also the first ever first female member of the military to be elected to this body. For Inflexions, she looks back on the challenges that she had to overcome, the reasons underlying her commitments, the complementary nature of these commitments and their self-evidence for her. All of them have one single aim - the public interest.

Educated at the Saint-Cyr military academy, and a graduate of the elite officer training school (École Supérieure de Guerre) at the age of 27, Adolphe Messimy seemed destined for a brilliant career but then resigned from the military institution in 1899, since he could not endue the attitude and lies of high command during the Dreyfus Affair. So, he then engaged in politics. He became a member of parliament and was several times a minister and senator.

In the 20th century, the French term “intellectuel engagé”, denoting an intellectual committed to political and/or social causes, was a national product that was renowned throughout the world.. However, the birth of this term goes back much longer. In the weeks following the publication of Emile Zola's “J'accuse !” in Georges Clemenceau's L'Aurore on 13 January 1898, the press published lists of the petitioners who vigorously supported the author when he was hauled before the Court of Assizes of La Seine for “Insulting the Army”. These petitioners were also calling for the revision of the trial of Captain Dreyfus, who had been unjustly found guilty of spying and sentenced by the French military court. Georges Clemenceau, followed by Maurice Barrès, then invented a neologism to define this protesting and activist minority. The word “intellectual” was coupled with the adjective “engagé”, which was historically (and still is) the word used to denote legal and military “enlistment”. But what does the term mean in the 21st century?

To demonstrate commitment, to invest yourself in a cause… to appeal for commitment, to mobilize people for a collective goal… but up to what point? Can we speak of over-commitment? Are there limits that should not be crossed? The experience of burnout, or professional exhaustion, has prompted reflection on what constitutes a healthy or toxic level of commitment. At a time when civic and professional commitment seem to be a response to numerous contemporary challenges, this issue also raises the urgent and vital question of our practices of command and leadership.

The construction of the European Union began with the signing of industrial, economic, monetary, financial and budget commitments. But what of the more profound commitment that touches questions of life and death? How can national and European convergence be attained? Enlisting for Europe. Dying for Europe. This can seem abstract, unrealistic and utopian. However, in history, it was a reality. It was in Central and Eastern Europe that these words took on flesh because that is where membership of Europe was a vital guarantee of independence, prosperity and modernity.

Since enlistment and commitment belong to the domain of praxis, (action – doing), they have to renounce the guarantee of foreknowledge in science. We commit ourselves without knowing if what we are attempting is possible or if it will turn out to be profitable. So, commitment condemns us to a triple leap of faith (in our gut-feeling, in the order of the world and in those who will survive), and because this leap is both difficult and bold, it can help to explain the forms of the current crisis in enlistment.

When France declared war on Prussia in 1870,defeat seemed a foregone conclusion. This was because the obstinate blindness of the authorities to the real state of their forces, the shortcomings of the chain of command and the structural, political and social factors that were deeply rooted in the regime and in society all conspired to ensure defeat. So, to understand the debacle we need to combine a comprehensive study of the political, social and military factors with a more specific examination of military technology and doctrine, tactics and strategy and organization and training.

The context of a society where personal development is seen as the ultimate goal can seem incompatible with fulfilling a vocation in the service of the community. So, we can legitimately ask what drives so many young people to join the French Army - an institution that can potentially be perceived as out of step with society. Similarly, we can ask how the army can retain the loyalty of those who have enlisted. This remains a challenge of major importance.

On 25 November 2019, Pierre-Emmanuel Bockel died for France in Mali. In this article, his father, Jean-Marie Bockel affirms his conviction that the social commitment of the family plays an important and even determining role in the decision of each of its members to undertake commitments of whatever nature. A testimony nourished by personal examples.

Since enlistment and commitment belong to the domain of praxis, (action – doing), they have to renounce the guarantee of foreknowledge in science. We commit ourselves without knowing if what we are attempting is possible or if it will turn out to be profitable. So, commitment condemns us to a triple leap of faith (in our gut-feeling, in the order of the world and in those who will survive), and because this leap is both difficult and bold, it can help to explain the forms of the current crisis in enlistment.