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In France, the relations between the politician and the soldier have always been difficult and marked by suspicion and lack of consideration. Without doubt, the memory of the treachery of Dumouriez, Napoleon and Boulanger, the collapse of June 1940, the Algiers Putsch all play a role.… The Great War provides a perfect illustration of these tensions: its centenary is an opportunity for free and wide-ranging reflection on the subject. Although, in our democracies, there is no permissible doubt regarding the primacy of the politician, this relationship cannot confine the soldier to the role of servile and mute subordination that some people still unfortunately call for. Whether we like it or not, “they will continue to march two by two, as long as the world turns, step by step and side by side”.