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For decades, right up to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar world, France’s defence system was marked by seamless consistency based on a doctrine on nuclear deterrence and an organisation of forces, their equipment and tactical methods which, together, echoed the “threat” to the “survival of the nation” from the “conventional enemy”. This enemy was described in detail in textbooks as a generic model. The paradox was that the effective implementation of this system was to remain virtual, unless it was to indicate the failure of deterrence. It was rare for the spirit of system to be imposed on such wide and long-term matters of defence.