In a series of interviews given to the Army Historical Service in 1998 and 1999, Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac retraced his path from mobilisation to enlistment in the Free French Forces in London and then operations with the National Interior Commission. His statement sheds light on how a young man, a history student unsurprised by the declaration of war in September 1939, came to enlist.

For a free Frenchman, joining the ranks of the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations meant giving priority to clandestine activities in France. The mission orders testify to the diversity of forms these activities took. The special services archives conserved by the Defence Historical Service still have their surprises, even for Daniel Cordier, who acquired a well-deserved reputation as a discoverer of the archives in the 1980s.

Even before the liberation of France, the need was felt to explain and justify the action of the BCRA. In late 1944, this task was entrusted to Daniel Cordier, who discharged it under sometimes farcical conditions. Assisted by Vitia and Stéphane Hessel, he soon realised the importance of his work: writing the Livre Blanc du Bureau central de renseignements et d'action.

In Hitler's mind, the ”V weapons” were to change the course of the war. The design and conditions of use of these ”miracle bombs” (Wunderwaffen), a type that was revolutionary for the period, were among the Reich's most closely-guarded secrets. An exceptional service was entirely dedicated to protecting this secrecy. The French special services nicknamed it ”the guardian angel” of the V1s. Analysis of the archives has lifted the veil on this hitherto-unknown organisation.

The repression of the Resistance was particularly efficient. Its success can be measured in the numbers of arrests, deportations and executions. The archives of the Defence Historical Service (SHD) help us to understand its logic and identify the players involved. They shed new light on the subject, paying particular attention to the organisations and men responsible for the mission of repression. The Abwehr and SIPO-SD files seized at the end of the war describe techniques for penetrating resistance organisations, teaching us a great deal about double agents and the role they played. The German archives conserved by the SHD also record the decisions of the German military tribunals throughout the national territory, adding to our knowledge of the occupier's legal system.

Under the defence, cooperation and assistance agreements signed with foreign countries, France has a commitment to intervene outside its borders. In 1978, it had a 20 000-strong intervention force comprised of the 11th Parachute Division, the 9th Marine Infantry Division and naval and air forces. The professional regiments of the 11th Parachute Division were alternately put on standby, codenamed ”Guépard”, so that they could be deployed without warning as required.

The last conflict of the Cold War or the first postmodern war, the operations that led to the liberation of Kuwait, in February 1991, were the result of a long and complex diplomatic process which culminated in a rapid air then land campaign. For France, who contributed a mixed force of nearly 20 000 troops - two-thirds of them from the army - the Gulf War raised the issue of how suitable its defence structure was to the conditions and realities of a changing world.

From August 1990, as part of the mission assigned by the UN, the French navy deployed over thirty ships - aircraft carriers, cruisers and helicopter carriers - nearly 7 000 marines and three marine commandos, with the missions of enforcing the embargo and transporting troops and equipment.

Following the end of the Algerian War, a new period began for the French armed forces: the era of overseas operations. These interventions, which have cost the lives of 630 soldiers in 50 years, have been characterised by a high degree of fragmentation - close to 400 operations have taken place during this period, most of them on a very small scale - and blurred boundaries between war and peace.

International relations expert Pierre Hassner likened the Cold War to a ”refrigerator effect”. If, for nearly half a century, the East-West standoff had ”frozen” regional complexities, the disappearance of that climate in the 1990s brought a resurgence of old animosities and marked the return of ”strategic disarray” during the war in the former Yugoslavia.