Lucien Poirier is a retired general

Général

Général is the French word for General.In France, Army generals are named after the type of unit they command. In ascending order there are two ranks :* Général de brigade : Brigade General.* Général de division : Divisional General....

 of the French army

French Army

The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...

 and theoretician of nuclear deterrence.

Poirier took part in the design of the French doctrine for use of nuclear weapons, the so-called "weak-to-strong strategy" (statégie du faible au fort), intended to deter the vastly superior Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 from invading France and Europe.

Poirier authored several books on the subject.

Works

• La Crise des fondements, Paris, ISC/Economica, 1994.
• Stratégies nucléaires, Bruxelles, Complexe, 1988.
• Essais de stratégie théorique, Institut de stratégie comparée, 1982.
• Des stratégies nucléaires, Paris Hachette, 1977.
• La réserve et l'attente : l'avenir des armes nucléaires françaises, with François Géré, Economica, Paris, 2001, 329 pp.

External links

Lucien Poirier : "je crois en la vertu rationalisante de l'atome", interview for Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...