Julien Malizard, Researcher at the Chair in Defence Economics is a member of the jury for PhD in History from Matthieu Chillaud.
The defence will take place on Friday 15 June 2018 at 2.00 pm, Room 005, Paul-Valéry University - Montpellier 3, Site Saint-Charles 1
Title of thesis : «Strategic studies in France under the Fifth Republic. The structuring of a disciplinary field in the service of a policy».»
Discipline : History, specialising in Military History
Summary:
There is a dynamic of opposites in the French government's policy to promote strategic studies: on the one hand, it seems regularly anxious to develop them; on the other, just as invariably, it seems to be groping its way towards this goal, sometimes even denying them the necessary freedom. Characterised as much by the inconstant practice of research institutes and government bodies as by a problematic integration within the University, strategic studies are at the interface of the study of war, peace and conflict, and are embodied in a highly fragmented way in a host of more or less related disciplines. This eclecticism partly explains the difficulties encountered, among other reasons such as the omnipresence of the State, the power of networks, or the legacy of the post-Algerian War context after General de Gaulle imposed a doctrinal orthodoxy. Combining historical depth and political analysis, this historiographical and cartographic thesis sets out to review the many bodies, institutes and periodicals that work and publish, in one way or another, in the field of strategic studies, and to explain the reasons why, despite a brilliant past, these studies are struggling to find their feet. For a long time, and to some extent even now, the work of think-tank-type centres, which have only recently been set up in the French strategic landscape, has suffered from a certain lack of recognition by the public authorities in terms of reflection and expertise on military-strategic issues, despite government rhetoric to the contrary. This problem, combined with the difficulty of dialogue between academics and the military, and the specific nature of the research subject of strategic studies, which is warfare, which requires a multidisciplinary approach even though our university system is characterised by mono-disciplinary requirements, explains the obstacles to the development of strategic studies at the alma mater.
The composition of the jury is as follows:
- M. Jacques ABEN, Professor, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, thesis supervisor
- Mrs. Patricia COSTA, General Commissioner of the Armed Forces, Paris
- M. Pierre JOURNOUD, Professor, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3
- M. Julien MALIZARD, Researcher, Chair of Defence Economics, Paris
- Mrs. Anne-Sophie MILLET-DEVALLE, Professor, Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis
- Colonel Jérôme PELLISTRANDI
- Mrs Brigitte VASSORT-ROUSSET, Professor, Université Jean-Moulin-Lyon-II
