“Make no mistake,” declared President Nicolas Sarkozy on June 17th, as he unveiled the results of France's first full defence review for 14 years, “national and European territory could be struck tomorrow...we cannot rule out the reappearance of a major threat, whatever its nature, that would put the very survival of the nation in peril.”

　　The president's speech, delivered in front of 3,000 French officers, laid out bluntly his response to today's security and terrorist risks. France will invest heavily in modernising the armed forces' equipment, including a new space programme, at the price of reducing its headcount. It is time, he urged, to stop measuring a country's military might by its manpower alone.