French military (catch all)

[M-A Lagrange]

Which, can be tricky by the way.
Basically the president is the Chief of the armies. He is the highest commander in charge.
For rescue operation in a foreign territory, he basically cannot not be aware and not authorise the operation.
For a smaller operation, as Artemis, the president is authorising but the parliament can/must be involved.
For a war, the parliament his the one giving the go ahead after proposition of the government. The Senate also has a voice.

Well, that's the general frame. After, you have the secret operations which can be decided by others than the president but never in contradiction with his orders.

There is theorically very little room for a vaccum in the chain of command. Now, some orders can be interpretations...

[M-A Lagrange]

Interesting enough, I just went to have a look at the legislation in France on the engagement of French Forces in foreign theatres. And the Senate is actually working on it. (More or less… Takes time as always)

All is basically based on the art35 from the constitution: “war declaration is authorized by the parliament”.
But, only the participation to Gulf war was voted by the parliament in 1991. Since then…
The senators are looking at a revision of the constitution on that subject. And the trigger is the participation of France to Afghanistan war.
As in USA, they feel they are not involved enough in the process: they are at the best consulted and otherwise informed regularly.

There is a proposition of law that wants to introduce the fact that if French forces are deployed for a longer period than 3 month, the parliament has to be consulted and authorization will be approved through vote.

Basically, the problem of war being conducted without war declaration seems to have trigger the same problematic on both sides of the ocean.
As there is no war declaration nowadays, the presidential power seems to be too important. But, you have to have in mind that strong presidential power was what was in the mind of those who wrote the 1958 constitution in France.

[jps2]

I wish to add some precisions to M-A Lagrange last topic.

Member of the Parlement (parliament, lower chamber) can ask, every Wednesday, direct and public writen question to any minister of the government. The debates are public, so some confidential issues are not asked/responded. There is also a Defense commission (small pool of deputies) where most confidential issues can be spoken. The main problem is that Defense issues are assign to President not to government, but the French constitution does not allow him to come and spoke at parliament.

Bosny, African and Afgha deployements where debate at parliament, but as they weren't wars, the parliament can't approve or deny the choice made by the Pdt and his Prime minister.

Foreign diplomacy is also assign to the president, according to the constitution.