411 Pedro Fatjó Gómez y Guillem Colom Piella The waning power. An analysis of... It is also worth highlighting that this White Paper saw the light with the birth of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).17 In the nineties, the French armed forces were immersed in two parallel though interrelated processes: the debate and the integration of the RMA into French strategy, and the activation of the objectives established in the White Paper.18 The debate about the RMA in France crystallized with the elaboration of the first manual for joint doctrine, and the creation of forums for intellectual reflection and the analysis of lessons learned, for the elaboration of doctrinal documents, and the education of military commands.19 Some examples of this are the Center for Doctrine and Higher Education of the Army (1998), substituted in 2004 by the Center for Doctrine in the Use of Forces, and the Center for Higher Education of the Army; and in particular, the Joint Center for Concepts, Doctrines, and Experimentation which, founded in 2005, under the command of the Chief of Defense, constitutes the main organ of the French military as it undertakes work for strategic prospective, joint doctrine, development and experimentation of concepts, or generation of military capabilities.20 Nonetheless, the French military did not limit themselves to importing American concepts about the RMA and transformation, but rather, regardless of the criterion, they elaborated their own original doctrines.21 In fact, the vision of the centers of thought regarding the binomial Revolution-Transformation has always been very 17 An RMA (Revolution in Military Affairs) constitutes a change in the form of combat which, motivated by the exploitation of new weapon systems, operating concepts, doctrines of use of force or ways to organize and administer military means, renders the former military style obsolete. In the decade of 1990, this idea designed the international strategic analysis since it was assumed that this revolution – made possible by information technology, based on the attainment of a full knowledge of the battlefield, and configured around the generation of a joint force capable of dominating the ground, naval, air, space, and cyberspace spheres – would allow the increase of the military gap between the countries that conquered it, and those which didn’t. (COLOM, Guillem, Entre Ares y Atenea, el debate sobre la Revolución en los Asuntos Militares, Madrid: Instituto Universitario General Gutiérrez Mellado, 2008). 18 PASCALON, Pierre. Quelle politique de défense pour la France à l’aube du XXIème siècle?, (What defense policy for France at the dawn of the 21st centruy?) Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001. 19 Army Staff, Concept interarmées d’emploi des forces en opération, París: Ministry of Defense, 1997 Army Staff, Doctrine interarmées d’emploi des forces en opérations, Paris: Ministry of Defense, 2002. 20 Since its foundation, the Centro de Doctrina de Empleo de Fuerzas (CDEF) (Center for the Doctrine of the Use of the Forces) has been giving support to a wide and varied series of specialized publications: since 2003 Doctrine Tactique y Cahiers de la Recherche Doctrinale, in 2005 Héraclès y Cahiers de la Réflexion Doctrinale came out, and more recently, Cahiers de la Recherche Opérationnelle.. 21 TERIFF, Terry, “NATO military transformation: challenges and opportunities for France”, European Security, vol. 19 nº 1, 2010, pp. 61-78. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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