COTARD Jean-Luc

Contact details

jean-luc.cotard@etu.univ-amu.fr

  • I'm interested in the training and sociability of officers in the French army to analyse their impact on decision-making in combat and the practical consequences in terms of tactics.
  • I'm writing a thesis on : "Le général d'armée de Goislard de Monsabert (1887-1981): gloire, humilité, oubli".

Functions

I am a doctoral student working under the supervision of Walter Bruyere-Ostells.

I am a member of the Editorial Board of magazine Inflections: civilian and military can say, since its creation in 2005.

Areas of research

Military history of France in the 20th century

Military training in the 20th century

Military sociology, sociability, elite selection

Military command architecture and links with political power

Catholicism and anti-Semitism in the armies of the 20th century
    African Army:

  • Moroccan conquest campaigns and the Rif campaign;
  • study on the evolution of «indigenous» status within the army,
  • political vision of the military command on the management of native veterans,
  • organisation and life of the units during the period 1939-1942,
  • return to combat in the Tunisian campaign (1942-1943)

Gaullism, anti-Gaullism and Vichy ideology
    Veterans, mainly from the 2nd World War:

  • culture, organisation, social issues and abuses,
  • focus on the 3rd DIA veterans' association and sister associations.

Memory and forgetting
    The impact of combat on individuals:

  • post-traumatic syndrome,
  • the long-term moral consequences of decisions taken by leaders

Productions

in the magazine History and Defence Les Cahiers de Montpellier (Associated Research Unit (URA) 109 of the CNRS and the Centre for Military History and National Defence Studies (CHMEDN))

    • n° 29/1994 Between bark and wood: sappers and blue helmets in Bosnia-Herzegovina (December 1992-June 1993) p. 49 to 81

in the magazine Inflections; civilians and military can say (www.inflexions.net and available on Cairn.info)

  • around General de Monsabert:
    • n°45: 1944, the battle of belvedere: a victorious failure
    • n°57: The liberation of Marseille, a «folly»?
    • n°58: Les Trois croissants or fraternity in action
  • on various subjects:
    • n°01: Insights and anecdotes
    • n°02: Looking Warriors, the warriors of impotence
    • n°15: The difficulty of communicating about military operations
    • n°20: Are the military misunderstood?
    • 22: Hail to the happy old crab!
    • n°29: From the act of resistance to endurance: the example of the Neodyme company
    • n°31: Kakanj 1992: sappers discover violence
    • n°34: Lan samaises letters
    • n°35: Sarajevo 1995. Mission impossible
    • n°37: «Your father is always by your side».»
    • n°40: Should the 14 July parade be condemned?
    • n°40: Military architectural heritage, a symbol of the soldier's place in the city?
    • n°42: «I recognise myself in your film».»
    • n°49: The French route
    • n°52: A recipe for a call
    • n°54: External operations: a time of transition
  • Interviews:
    • n°18 Schoendoerffer Pierre To be «a little candle filled with wonder at life».»
    • n°22 Nivat Anne «Wake up!»
    • n°26 Gourmaud Benoît «First think about what links us to others».»
    • n°30 Hagège Claude Languages and territory: a complex relationship
    • n°42 Torreton Philippe Capitaine Conan: a blow to the soul
    • n°42 Le Bomin Gabriel «What am I doing filming death?»
    • n°44 Faudais Stéphane From the «beautiful battle» to the art of war
    • n°45 Bentégeat Henri Taming failure
    • n°47 Puga Benoît «Secrecy is necessary and legitimate».»
    • n°57 Wargon Mathias Living the norm in an emergency department

 

 

Articles published in the Musée de l'Armée exhibition catalogues

    • 2019 “Lhe Canons of Elegance”Elegance in combat.
    • 2023 “Victory!”Celebrating military victory: France past and present.

Comic strip album

  • Patrick Deschamps and Jean-Luc Cotard, co-writers; Guillaume Berteloot, illustrator; Bénédicte Quinet, colourist:   Monsabert and the Army of Africa, Paris, 2024, Ed. du triomphe, 46 pages.

contributed some twenty notes to the collective work:

Lannoy (de) and Schiavon (dir.): Dictionary of French generals of the Second World War; Paris, Pierre de Taillac, 2025, 1200p..