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Coastline management policies and their effectiveness in the prevention of sea flooding or the fight against its risks are studied on four sites: the coast of Picardie, Arcachon Bay (France), Essex and Lincolnshire (England). The integration of natural dynamics and of long-term solutions in management policies shows some differences in the approach between Anglo-Saxon countries and France, the latter revealing, until a few years ago (and even nowadays in some cases), an anthropocentric form of governance. Thus, even in the Netherlands, which endured the dramatic floods of 1953 and whose history is bound up with the struggle against the sea’s action, engineers, taking the future effects of Climate Change into account, look to new more flexible management concepts integrating the sea’s action rather than fighting against it. Up to now, the works performed on the coast of Picardie have shown a continual struggle against the effects of the sea and have focused on protection or repairs (consolidation) after strong storms. In the Bay of Arcachon, the “planned” intrusion of the sea into the site is not justified by the necessity for the struggle against the consequences of the rising sea level, in contrast to the English examples. However, in France, a notable change seems to appear with the emergence of solutions, up to now more frequent in other European countries. These are more flexible, although paradoxically audacious because they are innovative and so arouse some suspicion among the population, such as on the coastal zone of Picardie. The paper studies what motivates this new approach to the problem. Does it square with what might be called the “post-Xynthia” period.