The suspension of a form of national service⁽¹⁾ that had become inequitable would seem to have generated some important shortcomings in the training of future citizens that the Defence Preparation Day is far from addressing, and to have diminished the sense of national cohesion around a defence culture. Moreover, the White Paper on defence and national security of 2008 specifically states that notwithstanding the numbers of civil servants and the rich network of volunteers available for mobilisation for national causes, ‘neither the public authorities nor society are adequately prepared to face major crises’.⁽²⁾ The needs for cohesion and for security come together at times of major crisis. This argues in favour of the building of a greater unifying, motivating and popular structure. More than ever, it would seem needful to federate the nation around a great project because, as Cicero pointed out, ‘The Republic is the res publica or the business of the people, but a people is not a haphazard assembly of individuals; it is the convergence of individuals who are associated by virtue of a common accord on the law and a community of interest.’⁽³⁾ The recreation of a National Guard,⁽⁴⁾ a genuine Republican Reserve, would meet current needs for resilience and national cohesion, as well as those other needs that cannot fail to emerge in the coming years.

A Manifest Operational Requirement

To guarantee French security, the requirements to be met are considerable, and increasing in several areas: defence and national security, protection of the civilian population, education, social welfare, public health, regional action, environmental protection, humanitarian work, international cooperation, etc. With the resources currently available, the State alone can no longer meet all these requirements, which affect national as much as human security. In 2007, military operational reserves amounted to no more than 59,000 volunteers, 25,000 of them for the Gendarmerie, under a special reserve engagement (ESR).⁽⁵⁾ Its role is, essentially, to meet the operational demands of the armed forces when they need extra manpower. A partial transformation of the private security sector⁽⁶⁾ would equally lead to deficiencies in the event of a serious crisis.

The White Paper on defence and national security⁽⁷⁾ considers that the civilian sector has only an indirect link with defence and security questions. This is no longer true if the objectives given to it are as much social as security-based. It is, moreover, surprising to note that the global approach is acknowledged as a solution to security problems beyond national frontiers, whilst for national problems it is somewhat neglected.