:france-cool:
"In January the general staff quietly established ten working groups to examine the country’s readiness for high-intensity war. French generals reckon that they have a decade or so to prepare for it. The groups cover everything from munition shortages to the resilience of society, including whether citizens are “ready to accept the level of casualties we have never seen since world war two”, says one participant. The spectre of high-end war is now so widespread in French military thinking that the scenario has its own acronym: HEM, or hypothèse d'engagement majeur (hypothesis of major engagement). The presumed opponents are unnamed, but analysts point not only to Russia, but also Turkey or a North African country."
Obviously, Turkey and France aren't exactly best buds. While the brain trust that uses /r/geopolitics, /r/neoliberal as NATO flairs think that just because these two are in an alliance of convenience they will be forever, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually got into some kind of conflict that would shatter NATO.
Not sure what France is gearing up for, the only actually sensical target is some north African country. Possibly Libya to "re-stabilize" it. I don't know if this type of gearing up is actually typical for France or not, either. It would be normal for the US, I guess.
The article mentioned an increase in troops in the Sahel region (think Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, etc.)
France is not currently at peace. In order to maintain and expand their colonial empire France has waged bloody wars in South East Asia and Africa for most of the past century.
There are 15 West and Central African nations, with a combined population of over 350 million and combined GDP of over US $250 billion that are still effectively ruled from Paris. Their currency is called the CFA Franc, which used to stand for the Franc of The French Colonies of Africa. In 1958 the acronym (but none of the terms of course) was changed to stand for the Franc of the French Community of Africa and then in 1960 to the Franc of the African Financial Community, but the acronym has always remained the same. France dictates their economic policy, the CFA Franc is backed by France, minted in France in quantities determined by the French, and on threat of France immediately stopping backing their national currency the nations using the Franc required to trade almost solely with France (France controls over 80% of those country's exports), keep over 50% of their foreign assets in French treasuries at all times, and pay an annual tribute justified as "interest" on the debt they owe France for the favour of being colonised that they will never be allowed to fully repay.
France is infamous for not giving up its colonial possessions without a bloody scorched earth fight and that has not changed. Currently, in Mali and the Central African Republic two of those 15 nations in the CFA zone, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and the Coalition of Patriots for change are actively fighting coalitions led by France in bloody anti-colonial civil wars. The rebel groups are mostly not communists, some are Christian or Islamic extremists, and there are often stark racial motivations and divisions, but France opposes all of them, and since 2020, even the largest Christian and Islamic militia groups have stopped fighting each other and are focused largely on fighting France and the French backed colonial governments.
Even those CFA countries whose people are not at war with France have been trying for years to get their currency rebacked by China and pegged to the Renminbi and have received large loans from China which has reduced their economic dependence on France and in effect reduced the threat of France unilaterally ceasing to back the currency as if China will still take it as payment for those billions of dollars in debt then if not in name it is at least in practice some backing. Incidentally this is also what a lot of the western media concern trolling about "debt trap diplomacy" and "Chinese colonialism" in Western and Central Africa is actually about. Economically and politically, France has been fighting these efforts tooth and nail, in 2019 there was a proposal supported by all CFA zone members to replace the CFA Franc entirely with a Renminbi back ECO which France successfully captured and defeated into a redivision of the CFA Franc into a Central and Western CFA Franc.
If there's a war between France and China or France and Turkey I highly doubt it would be in France, China or Turkey. It would almost certainly be in West or Central Africa, where there are already proxy wars simmering. To my knowledge China isn't currently funding any rebel groups, but there aren't many who'd say no, and there are a lot of "security contractors" guarding Chinese state owned enterprises in CFA nations. Turkey is almost certainly funding all of the Islamic ones. This announcement seems like the French military is trying to signal that they're able and willing to escalate those conflicts just as far as any of their opponents.