French National Strategic Review 2025: What European Perspectives?

The new French National Strategic Review (RNS) was published on 14 July 2025. This type of document is intended to guide all state action in the field of national security. At around a hundred pages, longer than the two previous editions, it first sets out the threats facing France, then the strategic objectives to be achieved, and finally the means and methods for doing so. National security here covers a very broad spectrum of threats but also of risks. The security-defence continuum is strongly reflected, as are (albeit briefly) climate change and health risks, though national defence still retains a predominant place.

Many issues are addressed, so we take here a specific perspective to analyse this new French strategy, which calls for a “European revolution”: what European prospects does the 2025 RNS offer? How are the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) treated? What new ambitions does France have in the field of defence cooperation? How does France see itself on the European continent? More broadly: does the 2025 RNS mark a “turning point towards Europe” for France?