Strategic Intelligence for the Future 2

2 Changing Our Way of Thinking

For some years, France has been developing a public economic intelligence policy that involves implementing within businesses, communities, universities, research bodies, associations, etc. the methods and tools for mastering strategic information for any economic actor, with a threefold aim: competitiveness in the industrial sector, economic security for businesses and the reinforcement of influence in the country [JUI 13].

However, this development, which began 20 years ago with the Martre report [MAR 94] was developed in a very different international context to today’s. Currently, there have been a series of unprecedented disruptions, such as Brexit in Europe, the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the termination of various international agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the rise of nationalism, which show that we are moving into a new era. This means that frames of the reference of the last 50 years are becoming obsolete and should be reconsidered. Some simple examples support this viewpoint: multilateral agreements will almost disappear in favor of bilateral agreements between countries or groups of countries, China with the development of the silk road (OBOR) [ZHA 16], ever easier access to large masses of information, which is making the individual more independent from the State, and consequently a greater trend toward autonomy, deglobalization, repeated errors in polling institutes and the rise of ...