Robots on the Battlefield is the first work published in the United States by the Ecoles de Saint-Cyr Coetquidan. The French military officer training facility. It is the fruit of cooperation with the Combat Studies institute of the US Army Combined Arms Center, whom I wish to thank for their active part in this initiative. I look forward to seeing other joint publications from this original cooperation In the future. The Issues of this work are those to which everyone Interested In or concerned with the world of defense at the highest level-members of the armed forces, as well as political leaders, industrialists, NGOs and university faculty in every field-should pay attention. As the school which trains the future officers of the French Army, Saint-Cyr Coetquidan is no stranger to these issues. Saint-Cyr Coetquidan has contributed to the discussion on robotization through a research program and a series of special events. A high point of which was an international colloquium in November 2011, amended by delegates from West Point, Annapolis, and Quantico among others. Robots on the Battlefield also Includes major contributions from talks at workshops and colloquia held as part of the Ecoles de Saint Cyr Coetquidan research program. The theme of robotization of the battlefield is approached here from the angle of social and political sciences. The work does not cover scientific and technical aspects of the question but concentrates on legal, ethical, psychological, sociological, tactical, and strategic issues, in order to provide an overview of how the amazing development of military robots Is going to change the conditions under which our armed forces act: preventing conflicts, coming between hostile parties, military intervention per se, and stabilizing and reconstructing the countries concerned. Without necessarily evoking "robolution" (the Idea that robotization has led to revolutionary change and a turning point in military history), the multiplication of remotely controlled machines, some of which are capable of autonomous decisions and actions, transforms the conditions of using force and raises a number of questions about opportunities and threats: the balance of costs, advantages and risks; operational and budgetary priorities: compatibility with the laws of armed combat and military ethics: the organization of forces; the use of robots In conjunction with other arms; tactical changes; the Impact on enemies and the population; and, more broadly, a change in the very sense of the military profession. To answer these diverse and complex questions, the Pole Action Globale et Forces Terrestres (the Saint-Cyr Coetquidan Global Action & Land Forces Research Center) has been conducting a research program with a wide range of experts representing various stakeholders in the field of battlefield robotics. The majority of these experts have a European perspective, which North American readers may find less familiar, but which, I hope, they will enjoy discovering. The work includes analyses by leaders of the French Armed forces, by industrialists in the field, and by university professors specializing in defense issues. American readers will of course be on familiar ground with major contributions from our colleagues from the US Military Academy, the US Naval Academy and the Marine Corps University, whom we thank wholeheartedly for their involvement in this research program. The Ecole Speciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, founded in 1802 by first consul Napoleon Bonaparte just before the Battle of Austerlitz, has trained future officers of the French Army for over two centuries. The school's graduates include a long line of military figures who distinguished themselves in battlefields around the globe, including Hubert Lyautey, Joseph Gallieni, Charles De Gaulle, and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. The school's mission is to provide French and foreign students with an education on one campus that combines academic excellence, through a grounding in military science and demanding physical training. The school's research work, of which Robots on the Battlefield is one result, aims to understand better the nature and scope of changes in international conflicts in order to enrich the palette of knowledge useful for training cadets so that they are prepared as well as possible to face difficult situations and understand the changing technologies they will have to implement. The development of this knowledge is closely tied In with the training of our cadets, who took active part in the workshop days, as can be seen on the Ecoles de Saint-Cyr Coetquidan website: http://www.st-cyr.terre.defense.gouv.fr/. We offer this work to our English-speaking colleagues in the hope that it will make a modest contribution, by the exchanges it could spark, to better reciprocate knowledge and to reinforce comprehension and cohesion among the allied forces working together In the main theaters of operation.

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