French Chief of Staff: “Very Hard Times Are In Store” for the West

“We need to prepare for fairly hard times, if not very hard times, for the West”, warned France’s Chief of the Defense Staff, Gen. Thierry Burkhard, as the “rejection” of the Western model continues to gain strength. “We are resolutely entering a new era, with a West that is being challenged … and an extremely strong fragmentation of the international order,” he stated Aug. 27. That order “was founded on law, built by the Western world, and we are being accused of having built it for the Western world,” he added, describing “in parallel the rise of an alternative order … that wants to push us out.”

The chief of staff of the French armed forces was speaking to the heads of the French business association MEDEF and ten major French corporations at a Paris ceremony to launch the ProMilès partnership between such corporations and the military, aimed, in particular, at retraining wounded soldiers for the private sector, strengthening the reserves, and employing military spouses. French President Emmanuel Macron intends to double the number of reservists, currently at 40,000, who now support the more than 200,000 soldiers in the French army. “The use of force is disinhibited and appears to be the strongest way of imposing one’s will and resolving disputes,” General Burkhard continued. “Let’s not think we’re going back to the world we knew before. We’re going to have to live with what’s happening.”

The corporations involved include both defense giants (KNDS, Thalès, Dassault Aviation, etc.) and civilian giants (Société Générale, Michelin, Schneider Electric, etc.).