ABSTRACT
The white paper noted the emergence of some of the transnational threats that would define the 1990s and the 2000s but had difficulty articulating those observations with a cohesive posture for the French armed forces. The reform was then quietly prepared between July and December 1995, before being announced in 1996. The process was emblematic of the importance of the executive in the French system, with the president being able to drastically shape the agenda and impose strong strategic re-orientations when using the right window of opportunity and through careful agenda-setting. The professionalisation of the armed forces, officially launched after it was voted by the parliament in 1997, was accomplished without major issues and completed in 2001, one year before the originally scheduled deadline. The combination of professionalising the armed forces and reducing defence budgets led to a process of concentration of the French armed forces between 1990 and 2019.
