Reflection on how the “combatant world” can fit into the context of “strategic shift”
How to mobilize veterans and enable them to play a “major role in France’s moral strength”? As the global strategic context deteriorates, threats increase in Europe, and misinformation spreads, Minister Delegate for the Armed Forces and Veterans, Alice Rufo, launched the “Combatant World Symposium” on Monday, April 13, which is expected to result in measures by November 11 on the evolution and role of these numerous organizations, their relationship with society, and the military.
Pointing out
demographic changes in a population of Algerian veterans
, which is expected to decrease, and the veterans of external operations becoming the majority, the Minister also noted a sociological evolution. “In 2026, we no longer associate as we did in the 1960s. (…) There is a real willingness to engage but in possibly different, more thematic, more punctual forms, and sometimes less hierarchical,” she said.
“Giving visibility to the combatant world.”
It is necessary, according to her, to reflect on how the “combatant world” can fit into the context of a “strategic shift.”
“Threats increase in Europe, the Near and Middle East are experiencing very destabilizing situations that will not be resolved overnight, the widespread use of force undermines international law,
security architectures that have structured our world since 1945 are weakening, disappearing
,” she listed.
Faced with misinformation becoming a “weapon of war,” “what we document today, the way we combat misinformation today will be part of tomorrow’s memory,” she emphasized: “It has become an activist act to speak the historical truth and fight against its falsification.”
Therefore, it is necessary to
strengthen this “shared memory”
and involve not only veterans’ associations, but also the military, ministries like the Ministry of National Education, unions and companies, as well as “the world of creation” to
“give visibility to this combatant world.”
