Contenu du sommaire : Guerre - Armée - Société

Naville P. : Social Argumente of Strategy. Modern strategy necessitates the consideration of social arguments. These arguments (justifiable arguments and not merely factors) apply to latent and active phases as well as to defensive and offensive phases of strategy. The author analyses their content in eight principal strategic concepts : the enemy, the object of the war, manœuvre, battle, potential, gain, cost, and decision.

Bouthoul G. : Sociological Function of Wars. Interpretative hypothesis of the losses of war and an analysis of the « war phenomenon » which, independent of its historical functions, is an instrument of demographic and economic re-equilibration. Plans for peace must be based on sociological functions, the permanent infrastrucure of war. To be efficient disarmament must be sociological and demographical.

?conomo ?. : Wars and Sociologists. The jurist, whom Frederik II installed, after having indoctrinated him, in the wagons of his army in case the army should be victorious, has often been the object of much fun. However, those who joke ? sociologists, historians or jurists ? sometimes place, without realizing it, their objectivity in the service of a sovereign whose suggestions, although less visible, are no less imperious than those of Frederick. Here the only « scientific » progress possible consists less in ceasing to « serve » than in knowing ? and saying ? what has been done.

Collinet M. : The Philosophy of Saint-Simon and the Army. Saint-Simon radically excluded the military institution from future societies. His disciples, especially Michel Chevalier, Constantin Pecqueur and Prosper Enfantin, transposed the ideas of their master by making the army the model and even the nucleus of a new society based on the association and the absence of private property. The military colonization of Algeria, recently conquered, plays a large role in these « Utopias ».

Cazeneuve J. : Industrial Society and Military Society according to Spencer. Spenser does not base his differentiation between military and industrial societies on technical criteria. The passage from one type to another is not the product of internal necessity. War, a binding factor of the first societies, results in militarism. Peace is the cause, rather than the consequence, of industrial societies.

Marantz M. : Armament expenditures and National Economy. America as an Example. The author poses a controversial question : Are military expenditures indispensible to American economic equilibrium ? After a detailed historical examination and an analysis of the present, the author estimates that he can reply negatively. The figures for defense, certainly important, would only be a secondary fraction of the turnover of companies and a particular instance ? sometimes a pilot instance ? of state intervention in the economy.

Lyons G.-M. : Military Necessities and Military Budgete in the United States. Simplicity of the old idea of « mobilization » and complexities of the contemporary concept. Description of the cycle of budgetary genesis. Behavior models of military leaders within political action. Scientists, financiers and soldiers. Difficulties and frustrations experienced by the latter. Their successes and their disappointments. Acquired or desirable institutional transformations. Towards a new style of civilian-military relations.

Meynaud J. : The Military and Power. The author examines three types of relations between military and civilian power : the army as an instrument of the state ; the army as a factor in governmental decisions ; and the army as a regulating element of politics. He then analyses the factors of these relations : professionalization, technocratic imperialism and governmental impotence.

Dogan M. : Officers and Governmental and Parliamentary Responsibility : From Marshal Mac-Mahon to General de Gaulle. Membership in the aristocratic or upper middle classes and descent from military families are characteristics of the 350 officers who became ministers or members of parliament between 1870 and i960. When they attained political responsability, their personalities acquired the traits of politicians and the traits of the military officer disappeared. The idea of a « coup de force » cannot materialize in a parliamentary atmosphere.

Isambert-Jamati V. : Remarks on military service. Inside the French family, military service is considered as the definitive rupture and the end of the educational role of the parents. This ordeal on the road to adulthood recalls by more than one trait the « initiation, rites » described by ethnologists. The different situations of the worker and middle-class milieus and of rural and urban areas. Traditional and modern values. Predictable evolution.

Maitre J. : Extreme Right-wing Catholicism and anti-subversive Crusade. In a critical conjoncture in which the relation between the military and political power has been jeopardized, extreme right-wing Catholicism has assumed great importance as the ideological basis of certain circles of officers and this trend can be analysed on the basis of the periodicals in which it is expressed. The significant points made by this study are : « protestation » in the church and in society as a whole ; the formation of an « elite » by "Cité catholique"; organizations for massive action and propaganda ; and the public touched by these actions.

Planchais J. : Crisis of Modernization in the Army. If « modernization » signifies systems of nuclear or highly technological arms, resistance to modernization in France has either a « moralistic », « individualistic » (traditional) aspect, or a « virile » (« paratrooper » spirit) aspect connected with the wars in Indochina and Algeria. In addition, a quarrel, the sociological determinants of which cannot be specified, between partisans of the old way and those of the new way has been revealed.

Colonel Chandessais : Observations on a Symposium Devoted to the Psychology of Defense. Symposium organized by NATO and concentrating on three themes : identification and distribution of aptitudes ; military training and education ; group productivity.

Attitudes and Motivations of Candidates in French Military Schools (Air Force Center for Psychological Studies and Instruction). In addition to its methodological interest (recent improvements in the use of scale analysis) and its sociological contribution concerning the recruiting of officers, this research provides a scientific description of various aspects entering into the choice of a military career. It reveals an antinomy between « militarism » and patriotic ideals on the one hand, and an interest in professional technique and stability on the other.