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In 1991, when the Soviet Union disappeared and the bipolar world with it, France, for the first time in its modern-day history, no longer had any known enemies. And yet, at the same time, its soldiers were engaged in more inextricable conflicts than they had ever been for three decades. What purpose might this engagement serve, when the “survival of the nation” is no longer at stake? In 1999, a document on exercising the profession of soldier in the army, written by Army Chief of Staff, General Mercier, set out to answer the question. In the face of unbridled violence, he establishes the legitimacy of using the force invested in the army in the nation’s name—a force that is efficient and controlled—by referring to the values of civilisation that underpin France. Today the enemy has reappeared in the very heart of our societies. Will the principles laid down nearly two decades ago be invalidated?