The French army is
divided in four groups: the Navy, the Air Force, the Land Force, and
The Gendarmerie Nationale. The first three are under the responsibility of the
Ministry of Defence. The Gendarmerie has been the responsibility of the
Interior Ministry since 2009, but its staff has
kept its military status. The French army is deployed overseas, and the
Gendarmerie is used to defend the French territory.
The Commander-in-chief of the armed forces is General Pierre de Villiers. He is under the
authority of the President of the Republic, M. François Hollande. The Defence Minister
is Jean-Yves Le Drian.
France has been
implicated in a lot of conflicts in the last century. Except for the First World
War and the Second World War, none of these conflicts took place on French
territory. With its seat at the Security Council of the United Nations, France has
often deployed its armed forces in different countries like Bosnia Herzegovina
in 1992 and Lebanon in 2006. It has also, of its own initiative, taken part in
conflicts in Afghanistan (2003) or Mali (2013).
In terms of soldiers, France holds the 15th world rank with
a total of 355, 499 people, but in terms of power France has the 4th place. The factors that are used to qualify the power of an army are its
budget, the number of personnel, the weapons they own, and the response
capacity they have.
Nowadays, the French army has very effective intervention units like the
Special Forces GIGN, and they are increasingly active because of the rise of
terrorist attacks.
The Foreign Legion, famous for its
action in Dien-Bien-Phu (1953) and Cameroon (1963), is still a force to be reckoned
with.
The French army is
definitively one of the most powerful, and that is one of the reasons for
terrorist attacks on France; terrorists try to demonstrate the vulnerability of the
country despite its powerful army.
Links:
Georges LAUZIN wants to be officer in the Gendarmerie.
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