The profound effects of making the armed forces professional

Making the armed forces professional, which is generally well accepted, has led to profound changes which transform the thinking and traditional working of army servicemen, and prompted a certain number of passing failures, particularly in the area of recruitment. This was the situation which Jérôme Lenoir encountered when he graduated from the military college of Saint-Cyr in the top ten, and started his first command post at the head of a section consisting of… three men - one of whom was redeployed -, and which prompted his decision to resign. Drawing on this bitter experience, he questions the ability of the army to face up to reforms as profound as that which it undertook in the first place, and to entrust its executive officers with responsibilities for which they were trained.