The use of force to resolve national or international crises was very early the subject of writings aimed at guaranteeing its legitimacy or ensuring its morality.
By analyzing a few key dates in the history of Humanity and although the progress associated with their writings has rarely matched the quality of their contributions, it is clear that the strategists, philosophers and representatives of civil society have always been interested in this need to regulate the use of weapons to guarantee the ethical nature of the use of force.
Sun Tzu, Liddell Hart, Lyautey, Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria, Michael Walzer, and Henri Dunant mark so many temporal milestones that have enlightened our civilizations to the point of giving rise to the conviction that it is possible to adopt the use of violence in a controlled, legitimate manner and applied as a last resort to resolve a conflict in a lasting way.
However, history has also shown that reflections, treaties and laws remain empty words if there is no upstream education and training for soldiers in the application of rules and procedures following an ethical use of force on the one hand, and on the other hand, the design, development and provision of weapons allowing to carry out a fight respectful of these rules and procedures.
At that point, it should be recalled that the European States – unlike Russia, China and the United States – have signed and do apply treaties on the non-use of anti-personnel mines, chemical weapons and the non-use of torture, among others.
Unlike other nations, European States have therefore considered the implementation of an ethical defence capability as a necessary and non-negotiable requirement.
At C&V Consulting, we unreservedly share the observation that only an ethical defence capacity is capable of leading to victory and lasting peace.
By relying on the broad spectrum of experience and expertise of our teams, we have also forged the intimate conviction that achieving this capability objective is both a key success factor for military operations and for the competitiveness and sustainability of companies that have developed compatible weapon systems or that contribute to the ethical use of force.
It is in this perspective that our experts support companies in the design of ethical and sustainable growth within the defence markets and in the development of solutions that comply with the ethical requirements set by the EU, whether in terms of technological choice, operational use cases or ability to meet export constraints, without harming economic viability of the product.
The C&V Consulting teams are, therefore, mobilized to support the stakeholders of the European Defence Industrial and Technological Base (EDITB) in the design of modern weapon systems improving, on the one hand, our capacities to deter or effectively neutralize an adversary with minimal lethal effects, and on the other hand guaranteeing minimal collateral damage.