The Institut des hautes études de défense nationale's PHD awards 2023
Agathe Couderc and Maxime Launay, two doctoral students in History at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sorbonne University, were rewarded by the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN) for their theses.
The award ceremony of the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale was held on May 16, 2023 in the Salon des Maréchaux of the École militaire de Paris. The awards were delivered by Prefect Denis Conus, vice director of the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale, on behalf of Army Corps General Benoît Durieux, the head of the IHEDN.
Maxime Launay, winner of the "special" prize
Title: "Une armée nouvelle ? La gauche et l’armée française (1968-1985). Antimilitarisme, libertés publiques et défense nationale"
Doctoral advisor: Olivier Dard
Research unit: Sorbonne - Identités, relations internationales et civilisations de l’Europe (SIRICE – UMR 8138)
Field: Contemporary History
Themes: Political and Military History of France during the Cold War, History of the State, History of Political-military and Civil-military Relations
Academic career
While he was conducting his PhD, Maxime Launay was a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sorbonne University and at Université d’Orléans, where he taught contemporary French and European History, at Bachelor’s and Master’s level, as well as in training programmes for teaching competitive examinations. He is a member of the editorial board of the periodical Parlement[s]. Revue d’histoire politique, and is in charge of coordinating the “Europe politique” (political Europe) axis of the Encyclopédie d'histoire numérique de l'Europe (EHNE).
Thesis summary
How to explain that the relationship between the left and the military, which had long been antagonistic or at least complicated, could evolve between 1968 and 1985 to the point of becoming institutionalised and contributing to the consensus on national defence? Three central themes make up the common thread of this thesis: the rejection of the role vested in the military (antimilitarism); the place given to the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the State for the military state (civil liberties); the principles of a military policy in the interest of France (national defence).
Agathe Couderc, winner of the first prize in the "theses" category
Title: "Sous le sceau du secret. Les coopérations internationales des Chiffres britannique et français, militaires et navals pendant la Première Guerre mondiale"
Doctoral advisor: Olivier Forcade
Research unit: Sorbonne - Identités, relations internationales et civilisations de l'Europe (SIRICE - UMR 8138)
Field : History of International Relations and of Europe (Contemporary History)
Themes: Intelligence, First World War, alliances, "Entente Cordiale", Cryptography
Academic career
Having obtained the agrégation of History in 2017, Agathe Couderc is a doctor of history specialising in the history of international relations and of Europe. She defended her thesis entitled "Sous le sceau du secret. Les coopérations internationales des Chiffres britannique et français, militaires et navals pendant la Première Guerre mondiale" in December 2022. She also has a master’s degree in history, in the specialisation “Armées, Guerres et Sécurité dans les sociétés de l’Antiquité à nos jours" (Armies, wars and security in societies from Antiquity to contemporary times), obtained at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sorbonne University in 2014. She has been a teaching fellow at the department of History since 2018. As a member of the joint research unit Sorbonne - Identités, relations internationales et civilisations de l'Europe (SIRICE - UMR 8138), she studies more specifically the evolution of technical intelligence in the first half of the 20th century, secret cooperations within an alliance, and the elaboration and sharing of sensitive expertise, in wartime and in peacetime alike.
Thesis summary
During the First World War, owing to the evolution of telecommunications at the end of the 19th century, a new branch of intelligence emerged: technical intelligence, based on the interception of radio messages. As a result of technical progress, military cryptography experienced a sped-up development during the Great War, which led to the creation of cipher services, in charge of protecting national communications and attacking foreign coded messages.
Following the cipher services of the "Entente" powers from the pre-war years to the post-war period, this thesis underlines the importance of cryptography in the secret cooperation between France, Britain, and their other allies, and thus proposes a history of the institutionalisation of secret in the beginning of the 20th century.
L’Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN)
The Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN) (Institute of advanced studies in national Defence) is a public academic institution placed under the authority of the Prime Minister. Its missions are to promote national cohesion and to take part in developing a strategic reflection on defence matters.
Since 1998, several prizes are awarded each year by the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN), in order to foster research about defence, security, international relations, foreign policy, armament and defence economics. The prizes reward researchers studying for a master 2 recherche (second year of a research-oriented Master’s programme) or a PhD, whose works move research forward in the field of human and social sciences.
Picture on the left
From left to right: Maxime Launay, Agathe Couderc, Claire Caniaux (winner of the first prize in the "mémoires de master 2 recherche" category, for her dissertation "Viser la lune. Les ambitions spatiales de la Turquie" at the INALCO, supervised by Alexandre Toumarkine)
Picture on the right
From left to right: Olivier Forcade (professor of Contemporary History, specialised in International Relations, at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sorbonne University), Bertrand Couderc (Agathe Couderc’s father), Agathe Couderc, Gautier Sénéchal (Agathe Couderc’s partner)
From left to right: jury of the IHEDN, Aurélie Vittot (doctor at the IHEDN), Maxime Launay, Agathe Couderc, Prefect Denis Conus, vice director of the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale, Claire Caniaux (winner of the first prize in the "mémoires de master 2 recherche" category, for her dissertation "Viser la lune. Les ambitions spatiales de la Turquie" at the INALCO, supervised by Alexandre Toumarkine), Guillaume Lasconjarias (doctor of History and head of research at the IHEDN)