Olivier Schmitt
Biographic Data
| ID | 890400 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Olivier Schmitt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Olivier |
| FAMILY NAME | Schmitt |
| SIGNATURE | SCHMITT O |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southern Denmark |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1366-6621 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 89 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Qu’est-ce qu’une alliance solide
Système international et conflictualités contemporaines: Comment comprendre les causes des conflits
L’article étudie les transformations du contexte international et leur effet sur les formes contemporaines de conflictualité. Il analyse la manière dont les transformations de l’architecture, de l’infrastructure et de l’écologie du système international altèrent les possibilités de conflit armé et de leur résolution, et présente le caractère des conflits armés contemporains, avant d’étudier le cas de la guerre en Ukraine comme révélateur des dyna…
Competing visions: The impact of Franco-German narrative divergence on EU strategy
The European Union’s ability to craft and project a coherent strategic narrative is crucial for its global influence, yet it is complicated by the divergent approaches of its two key players, France and Germany. This article examines the extent to which French and German strategic narratives converge or diverge across six key foreign policy areas: relations with the United States, China, Russia, Africa, military power, and multilateralism. Using …
Défense de l’Europe: La Nouvelle Crise Des Fondements
Assessing Nato’s cohesion: Methods and Implications
While united in initial responses to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, NATO members face challenges as the alliance adapts to a significantly worsened security environment. Although Russia’s war in Ukraine provided NATO with a unifying threat, we argue that external factors are not sufficient to maintain its cohesion. This forum contribution develops a conceptual tool to assess alliance cohesion across both political and military dimensions, thus hi…
Nato’s strategic concept: Responding to Russia and China
Both China and Russia have become more assertive strategic actors since NATO last revised its Strategic Concept in 2010. What major strategic decisions do Russia, China, and other major powers face in the next decade? How should these changes be reflected in the next Strategic Concept? We argue that NATO must seriously address challenges from China and Russia through increased commitment, preparedness, and coordination of the conventional forces …
An unstable equilibrium: Civil-military relations within the French Ministry of Defence
French civil-military relations under the 5th Republic are marked by the imposing figure of the President, because of their role in nuclear deterrence. In that context, the role of the ministry of defence in general, and of its leader (the minister) in particular, is ambiguous: the minister is technically not the highest authority in charge of defence issues (since both the Prime Minister and the President are constitutionally tasked with importa…
War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power
Perceptions of time contributed to recent Western military failingsThe “decline of the West” is once again a frequent topic of speculation. Often cited as one element of the alleged decline is the succession of prolonged and unsuccessful wars—most notably those waged in recent decades by the United States. This book by three Danish military experts examines not only the validity of the speculation but also asks why the West, particularly its mili…
La bombe: Les paradoxes de l’arme absolue
Le secret n’est jamais absolu en matière nucléaire, du fait de la nature fondamentale de la manœuvre de dissuasion, mais aussi des besoins de coopération dans le cadre de la lutte contre la prolifération. L’alternance maîtrisée entre la lumière et l’ombre constitue ainsi le cœur des enjeux recouvrant le fait nucléaire. On peut alors distinguer deux dimensions à ce secret : une qui recouvre les intentions et les capacités, et une qui relève de la …
Recension de Samuel B. H. Faure, Avec ou Sans l’Europe. Le Dilemme de la Politique Française d’Armement , Bruxelles, Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 2020, 211 p
Ideology and influence in the debate over Russian election interference
War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power
La guerre et la paix: Approches et enjeux de la sécurité et de la stratégie
Les grandes puissances reprennent leur compétition stratégique, Donald Trump répand sa vision isolationniste du monde, le terrorisme s'internationalise, la Chine devient le nouveau géant, la Russie retrouve son agressivité, les guerres se font cybernétiques... Autant de signes que l’ordre international tel que nous le connaissons a vécu. Si un terme devait résumer la période charnière que nous vivons, ce serait celui du recul des relations intern…
Wartime paradigms and the future of western military power
From the perception of the imminence of threats at the political level to the seizing of initiative through proper timing at the tactical level, temporality is directly related to war and warfare. Yet, despite some analyses of the importance of time at the political/grand strategic level (usually by scholars) and at the tactical level (usually by military professionals) there is surprisingly little discussion of the impact of time on the preparat…
How to challenge an international order: Russian diplomatic practices in multilateral security organisations
Many policy and academic debates focus on the extent to which Russia is a revisionist power challenging the ‘liberal world order’. However, there is little agreement on the primary motives explaining the behaviour of Russia, some pointing to her unsatisfied great power ambitions and neo-imperial ideologies, and others to genuine security concerns. Adjudicating those claims is important because of their policy implications for engagement and/or de…
Les coopérations de défense au XXI e siècle: Le bel avenir d'une pratique ancienne
To fight another day: France between the fight against terrorism and future warfare
This article examines the ways in which recent military experiences have affected France's approach to the use of military power, the role of allies and its vision of future warfare. In its management of strategic challenges, we identify the persistence of many traits of France's historical habits and practices. France remains a distinct, outward looking, and militarily willing and able European power. However, the threats that France has sought …
Allies That Count: Junior Partners in Coalition Warfare
Maîtrise des armements conventionnels et sécurité européenne: La montée des périls
Le régime de maîtrise des armements conventionnels en Europe élaboré à la fin de la guerre froide est considérablement affaibli, du fait d'une combinaison de violations non sanctionnées au nom d'une « approche flexible » censée faciliter la coopération, et d'un manque de ressources administratives de la part de l'OSCE et des États parties pour exercer un contrôle efficace. Cet affaiblissement du régime est également un signe clair du retour de la…
More allies, weaker missions? How junior partners contribute to multinational military operations
There is a growing consensus that multinational military operations are often less effective than the theoretical sum of their constitutive parts. Multiple chains of command, restriction on intelligence sharing, and capability aggregation problems can reduce fighting power. However, partners may be necessary to provide legitimacy to an intervention. As such, most studies assume that the state leading a coalition (usually the United States) has to…
When are strategic narratives effective? The shaping of political discourse through the interaction between political myths and strategic narratives
Most research on strategic narratives has explored their creation, and their interaction with other elements of national power in the conduct of foreign policy. Yet, the issue of how the targeted political communities receive those strategic narratives, and thus how those narratives are likely to have a political impact, is understudied. This article argues that in order to understand the ways strategic narrative are received within a political c…
Books by Our Readers
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Weapon of choice: Small arms and the culture of military innovation
Over the past decade, the study of change and transformation in military organizations has become a major and very productive subfield of security and strategic studies. The campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have led researchers to explore mechanisms of military change beyond the ‘major transformations’ studied in the 1990s, in particular bottom-up adaptation. One of the contemporary challenges for the field is to reconcile the study of top-down …
The Reluctant Atlanticist: France’s Security and Defence Policy in a Transatlantic Context
This article introduces the key tenets of French foreign and security policy during the Cold War, and illustrates the deep challenges to the French consensus raised by the emergence of a unipolar system. There is a growing gap between the rhetoric of French security policy, emphasizing ‘autonomy’ and ‘sovereignty’ out of habit from the Cold War, and the actual security practices showing a gradual embedding within the transatlantic security struct…
French Military Adaptation in the Afghan War: Looking Inward or Outward
For some, a specific feature of the French armed forces' adaptation process in the adaptation process would be the capacity to look inward instead of outward in order to identify relevant solutions to tactical/doctrinal problems. This article questions such a narrative, and argues that the French armed forces are as quick as any to borrow from other countries’ experiences. In order to do so, this article introduces the concept of ‘selective emula…
When are strategic narratives effective? The shaping of political discourse through the interaction between political myths and strategic narratives
Most research on strategic narratives has explored their creation, and their interaction with other elements of national power in the conduct of foreign policy. Yet, the issue of how the targeted political communities receive those strategic narratives, and thus how those narratives are likely to have a political impact, is understudied. This article argues that in order to understand the ways strategic narrative are received within a political c…
International organization at war: Nato practices in the Afghan campaign
This article investigates the NATO campaign in Afghanistan through a practice-based approach. The structural distribution of power within NATO, which is obviously in favor of the US, does not automatically lead to Washington’s desired outcomes, and US delegates must competently perform a certain number of practices for their power advantage to take its full effect. The article also illustrates how looking at practices helps to explain policy deci…
Strategic Users of Culture: German Decisions for Military Action
This article looks at cases in which political leaders have engaged in seemingly inconsistent behaviour and explores how they framed and justified their decisions. After showing that strategic culture is composed of different facets, I argue that when faced with conflicting pressures from the international environment and their own national constituencies, political leaders intentionally manipulate facets of their own strategic culture to legitim…
Wartime paradigms and the future of western military power
From the perception of the imminence of threats at the political level to the seizing of initiative through proper timing at the tactical level, temporality is directly related to war and warfare. Yet, despite some analyses of the importance of time at the political/grand strategic level (usually by scholars) and at the tactical level (usually by military professionals) there is surprisingly little discussion of the impact of time on the preparat…
To fight another day: France between the fight against terrorism and future warfare
This article examines the ways in which recent military experiences have affected France's approach to the use of military power, the role of allies and its vision of future warfare. In its management of strategic challenges, we identify the persistence of many traits of France's historical habits and practices. France remains a distinct, outward looking, and militarily willing and able European power. However, the threats that France has sought …
Ideology and influence in the debate over Russian election interference
French Military Adaptation in the Afghan War: Looking Inward or Outward
For some, a specific feature of the French armed forces' adaptation process in the adaptation process would be the capacity to look inward instead of outward in order to identify relevant solutions to tactical/doctrinal problems. This article questions such a narrative, and argues that the French armed forces are as quick as any to borrow from other countries’ experiences. In order to do so, this article introduces the concept of ‘selective emula…
Assessing Nato’s cohesion: Methods and Implications
While united in initial responses to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, NATO members face challenges as the alliance adapts to a significantly worsened security environment. Although Russia’s war in Ukraine provided NATO with a unifying threat, we argue that external factors are not sufficient to maintain its cohesion. This forum contribution develops a conceptual tool to assess alliance cohesion across both political and military dimensions, thus hi…
How to challenge an international order: Russian diplomatic practices in multilateral security organisations
Many policy and academic debates focus on the extent to which Russia is a revisionist power challenging the ‘liberal world order’. However, there is little agreement on the primary motives explaining the behaviour of Russia, some pointing to her unsatisfied great power ambitions and neo-imperial ideologies, and others to genuine security concerns. Adjudicating those claims is important because of their policy implications for engagement and/or de…
The Reluctant Atlanticist: France’s Security and Defence Policy in a Transatlantic Context
This article introduces the key tenets of French foreign and security policy during the Cold War, and illustrates the deep challenges to the French consensus raised by the emergence of a unipolar system. There is a growing gap between the rhetoric of French security policy, emphasizing ‘autonomy’ and ‘sovereignty’ out of habit from the Cold War, and the actual security practices showing a gradual embedding within the transatlantic security struct…
L'accès aux données confidentielles en milieu militaire: Problèmes Méthodologiques Et Éthiques d'Un « Positionnement Intermédiaire
Le terrain militaire n'est certainement pas le plus facile d'accès pour un chercheur et il nécessite des stratégies spécifiques pour la collecte d'informations. Le but de cet article est multiple : tout d'abord, il s'agit de réfléchir à la manière dont des données peuvent être recueillies dans un environnement militaire français, étranger, ou multinational. Ensuite, il s'agit de réfléchir au positionnement du chercheur au sein de cet environnemen…
More allies, weaker missions? How junior partners contribute to multinational military operations
There is a growing consensus that multinational military operations are often less effective than the theoretical sum of their constitutive parts. Multiple chains of command, restriction on intelligence sharing, and capability aggregation problems can reduce fighting power. However, partners may be necessary to provide legitimacy to an intervention. As such, most studies assume that the state leading a coalition (usually the United States) has to…
An unstable equilibrium: Civil-military relations within the French Ministry of Defence
French civil-military relations under the 5th Republic are marked by the imposing figure of the President, because of their role in nuclear deterrence. In that context, the role of the ministry of defence in general, and of its leader (the minister) in particular, is ambiguous: the minister is technically not the highest authority in charge of defence issues (since both the Prime Minister and the President are constitutionally tasked with importa…
Weapon of choice: Small arms and the culture of military innovation
Over the past decade, the study of change and transformation in military organizations has become a major and very productive subfield of security and strategic studies. The campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have led researchers to explore mechanisms of military change beyond the ‘major transformations’ studied in the 1990s, in particular bottom-up adaptation. One of the contemporary challenges for the field is to reconcile the study of top-down …
Européanisation ou otanisation: Le Royaume-Uni, la France et l’Allemagne en Afghanistan
Les armées occidentales ont profondément changé suite à plus d’une décennie d’intervention militaire en Afghanistan. Cet article étudie l’une des modalités de ce changement, à savoir l’émulation sélective. Prises au dépourvu par l’évolution des combats en Afghanistan, la France, le Royaume-Uni et l’Allemagne sont allées chercher au sein de l’OTAN (au sein de la structure ou auprès des autres États membres) des réponses doctrinales et matérielles …
A Tragic Lack of Ambition: Why EU Security Policy is no Strategy
Tools of classical strategic analysis support distinctive explanations for the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union. Looking at the articulation between ends, ways, and means offers a perspective on the CSDP that is different from the approaches usually favoured by European Union specialists or even security studies scholars. In particular, it is argued here that the CSDP is no strategy, and little more than an institut…
Die Buccellarii. Eine Studie zum militärischen Gcfolgschaftswesen in der Spätantike
Zu den markanten Krisensymptomen des spätantiken Imperiums zählen sehr viele Forscher das Auftreten der buccellarii, der militärischen Gefolgsleute von Militärs, Beamten und Privatleulen; man hat in diesem Zusammenhang von der "Usurpation militärischer Macht durch den Privaten" oder von einer "mediatisierte(n) Staatsgewalt" gesprochen
Strategic Users of Culture: German Decisions for Military Action
This article looks at cases in which political leaders have engaged in seemingly inconsistent behaviour and explores how they framed and justified their decisions. After showing that strategic culture is composed of different facets, I argue that when faced with conflicting pressures from the international environment and their own national constituencies, political leaders intentionally manipulate facets of their own strategic culture to legitim…
A Tragic Lack of Ambition: Why EU Security Policy is no Strategy
Tools of classical strategic analysis support distinctive explanations for the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union. Looking at the articulation between ends, ways, and means offers a perspective on the CSDP that is different from the approaches usually favoured by European Union specialists or even security studies scholars. In particular, it is argued here that the CSDP is no strategy, and little more than an institut…
Soraya Sidani, Intégration et déviance au sein du système international
Pourquoi un État reste-t-il en dehors des conventions multilatérales et de leurs apports en termes d’intégration et de socialisation au sein du système international ? Pourquoi certains États respectent-ils plus le droit international que d’autres, et comment en vient-on à traiter l’Iran ou la Corée du Nord de « parias » alors que la Chine ou les États-Unis, qui n’ont par exemple pas ratifié le statut de Rome créant la Cour Pénale Internationale,…
A war worth fighting? The Libyan intervention in restrospect
Européanisation ou otanisation: Le Royaume-Uni, la France et l’Allemagne en Afghanistan
Les armées occidentales ont profondément changé suite à plus d’une décennie d’intervention militaire en Afghanistan. Cet article étudie l’une des modalités de ce changement, à savoir l’émulation sélective. Prises au dépourvu par l’évolution des combats en Afghanistan, la France, le Royaume-Uni et l’Allemagne sont allées chercher au sein de l’OTAN (au sein de la structure ou auprès des autres États membres) des réponses doctrinales et matérielles …
Guerre et stratégie: Approches, concepts
Champ disciplinaire reconnu en tant que tel aux États-Unis et en Grande-Bretagne, les études stratégiques sont sous-représentées en France, où règne une méconnaissance mutuelle entre milieux militaire, politique et universitaire, entretenue par une structuration rigide des disciplines à l’Université. Pourtant, les études stratégiques sont un champ de recherche actif et riche de nombreux travaux complétant utilement les relations internationales o…
Conspiracism in contemporary Russia
L'accès aux données confidentielles en milieu militaire: Problèmes Méthodologiques Et Éthiques d'Un « Positionnement Intermédiaire
Le terrain militaire n'est certainement pas le plus facile d'accès pour un chercheur et il nécessite des stratégies spécifiques pour la collecte d'informations. Le but de cet article est multiple : tout d'abord, il s'agit de réfléchir à la manière dont des données peuvent être recueillies dans un environnement militaire français, étranger, ou multinational. Ensuite, il s'agit de réfléchir au positionnement du chercheur au sein de cet environnemen…
Or Rosenboim, The Emergence of Globalism. Visions of World Order in Britain and the United States, 1939-1950
La question de la gestion collective des problèmes internationaux invite souvent l’observateur à la déception, voire au cynisme. En dépit de décennies d’analyses démontrant l’« interdépendance complexe » prévalant au sein du système international, les responsables politiques comme les électeurs ont montré peu d’appétence pour un renforcement des organisations et des politiques internationales, malgré la nécessité posée par les enjeux globaux tels…
Le conspirationnisme dans la Russie contemporaine
Les thèses conspirationnistes connaissent un essor croissant en Russie depuis le début des années 2000. Certaines sont mêmes exprimées par des proches des cercles du pouvoir. Le paroxysme a été atteint ces dernières années avec les déclenchements du conflit syrien et surtout ukrainien. Toutefois, les origines de ces thèses à forte teneur anti-américaine sont anciennes et sont à chercher dans la chute de l’URSS, l’un de leurs principaux théoricien…
La noblesse des États. Hiérarchie et puissance au sein du système international
The Reluctant Atlanticist: France’s Security and Defence Policy in a Transatlantic Context
This article introduces the key tenets of French foreign and security policy during the Cold War, and illustrates the deep challenges to the French consensus raised by the emergence of a unipolar system. There is a growing gap between the rhetoric of French security policy, emphasizing ‘autonomy’ and ‘sovereignty’ out of habit from the Cold War, and the actual security practices showing a gradual embedding within the transatlantic security struct…
French Military Adaptation in the Afghan War: Looking Inward or Outward
For some, a specific feature of the French armed forces' adaptation process in the adaptation process would be the capacity to look inward instead of outward in order to identify relevant solutions to tactical/doctrinal problems. This article questions such a narrative, and argues that the French armed forces are as quick as any to borrow from other countries’ experiences. In order to do so, this article introduces the concept of ‘selective emula…
International organization at war: Nato practices in the Afghan campaign
This article investigates the NATO campaign in Afghanistan through a practice-based approach. The structural distribution of power within NATO, which is obviously in favor of the US, does not automatically lead to Washington’s desired outcomes, and US delegates must competently perform a certain number of practices for their power advantage to take its full effect. The article also illustrates how looking at practices helps to explain policy deci…
Allies That Count: Junior Partners in Coalition Warfare
Maîtrise des armements conventionnels et sécurité européenne: La montée des périls
Le régime de maîtrise des armements conventionnels en Europe élaboré à la fin de la guerre froide est considérablement affaibli, du fait d'une combinaison de violations non sanctionnées au nom d'une « approche flexible » censée faciliter la coopération, et d'un manque de ressources administratives de la part de l'OSCE et des États parties pour exercer un contrôle efficace. Cet affaiblissement du régime est également un signe clair du retour de la…
More allies, weaker missions? How junior partners contribute to multinational military operations
There is a growing consensus that multinational military operations are often less effective than the theoretical sum of their constitutive parts. Multiple chains of command, restriction on intelligence sharing, and capability aggregation problems can reduce fighting power. However, partners may be necessary to provide legitimacy to an intervention. As such, most studies assume that the state leading a coalition (usually the United States) has to…
When are strategic narratives effective? The shaping of political discourse through the interaction between political myths and strategic narratives
Most research on strategic narratives has explored their creation, and their interaction with other elements of national power in the conduct of foreign policy. Yet, the issue of how the targeted political communities receive those strategic narratives, and thus how those narratives are likely to have a political impact, is understudied. This article argues that in order to understand the ways strategic narrative are received within a political c…
Books by Our Readers
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Weapon of choice: Small arms and the culture of military innovation
Over the past decade, the study of change and transformation in military organizations has become a major and very productive subfield of security and strategic studies. The campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have led researchers to explore mechanisms of military change beyond the ‘major transformations’ studied in the 1990s, in particular bottom-up adaptation. One of the contemporary challenges for the field is to reconcile the study of top-down …
Les coopérations de défense au XXI e siècle: Le bel avenir d'une pratique ancienne
To fight another day: France between the fight against terrorism and future warfare
This article examines the ways in which recent military experiences have affected France's approach to the use of military power, the role of allies and its vision of future warfare. In its management of strategic challenges, we identify the persistence of many traits of France's historical habits and practices. France remains a distinct, outward looking, and militarily willing and able European power. However, the threats that France has sought …
La guerre et la paix: Approches et enjeux de la sécurité et de la stratégie
Les grandes puissances reprennent leur compétition stratégique, Donald Trump répand sa vision isolationniste du monde, le terrorisme s'internationalise, la Chine devient le nouveau géant, la Russie retrouve son agressivité, les guerres se font cybernétiques... Autant de signes que l’ordre international tel que nous le connaissons a vécu. Si un terme devait résumer la période charnière que nous vivons, ce serait celui du recul des relations intern…
Wartime paradigms and the future of western military power
From the perception of the imminence of threats at the political level to the seizing of initiative through proper timing at the tactical level, temporality is directly related to war and warfare. Yet, despite some analyses of the importance of time at the political/grand strategic level (usually by scholars) and at the tactical level (usually by military professionals) there is surprisingly little discussion of the impact of time on the preparat…
Political science (29 works) · Law (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies (10 works) · Humanities (10 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (10 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Economics (9 works)