The Autumn 2012 issue carries four articles (two in English, two in French). The first (in English), by Aida Alvinius of Sweden, deals with the mechanisms that allow civil-military bureaucracies to escape the consequences in non-routine situations of their usual rigidity. The second (in French), by Christophe Wasinski, is derived (as was the case in the previous issue) from the papers presented at the conference on strategic reasoning held in Paris on 30 May 2012, and probes the social factors that bestow legitimacy and credibility upon strategic thought. The third (in English), by Matthieu Chillaud, dwells at length on the highs and lows of strategic studies in France from the standpoint of the field's institutional history since 1945. Last but not least is Thomas Lindemann's (French) piece on the role of emotions associated with discriminations against minorities and their lack of recognition as causes of civil wars and armed rebellions (in place of the purely instrumental or strategic theses that dominate the literature on that topic).
The “Classics” section breaks new ground by shifting from the sociology of armed forces and civil-military relations to strategic thinking during the military field's golden age of the late fifties and early sixties in America : the landmark in the literature it presents is no other than Thomas C. Schelling's The Stratgy of Conflict (1960).
The “Junior Authors” section is again absent from the scene (but will return soon). The present issue ends with reviews of two books published in 2012 : one (authored by Col. Jérôme Pellistrandi, in French) tackles the volume that Laurent Henninger and Thierry Widemann have devoted to the history of war and the concepts that help understand it ; the other (in English, signed by Joseph Soeters) deals with Claude Weber's important book on the socialization of Saint-Cyr cadets.
Happy reading !
