// Comparison

Cyber vs Cyberstratégie: Which Should You Read?

Two cybersecurity books on Strategy, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.

Intermediate
4/52018
Cyber

La guerre permanente

Jean-Louis Gergorin, Léo Isaac-Dognin

A strategic analysis of cyber conflict as permanent, sub-threshold warfare — and what France and Europe should do about it — by a former senior French strategist and a consultant.

Intermediate
3/52012
Cyberstratégie

L'art de la guerre numérique

Bertrand Boyer

An early French military-strategic treatment of cyberspace as a theatre of operations — doctrine, deterrence and the determinants of a national cyber policy — by a French officer and strategist.

Read this if

Strategy and policy readers who want a serious French argument about cyber as continuous low-intensity conflict, with concrete doctrine and recommendations. Gergorin brings real statecraft experience.
Readers interested in the strategic and military dimension of cyber: doctrine, statecraft, deterrence, and how cyberspace fits into conflict. Strong on the French/European strategic perspective often missing from US-centric accounts.

Skip this if

Technical readers wanting attacks or defence; it's a strategy/policy book aimed at decision-makers, not practitioners.
Technically-minded readers wanting attacks or defence; this is strategy and doctrine, not tooling. As a 2012 book, some examples predate the last decade of cyber-conflict.

Key takeaways

  • One of the most substantive French strategy books on cyber as permanent conflict.
  • Gergorin is a former head of policy planning at the Quai d'Orsay — the statecraft is first-hand.
  • Policy- and doctrine-focused, with concrete recommendations for France and Europe.
  • A foundational French-language text on cyber as a domain of warfare and statecraft, not as a technical discipline.
  • Brings a French/European strategic lens to a conversation usually dominated by American voices.
  • From 2012, so read it for doctrine and framing rather than current events — pair with newer reporting for the post-2014 era.

How they compare

We rate Cyber higher (4/5 against 3/5 for Cyberstratégie). For most readers, that means Cyber is the primary pick and Cyberstratégie is a useful follow-up.

Both books target intermediate-level readers, so the choice is about topic, not difficulty.

Cyber and Cyberstratégie both cover Strategy, Geopolitics, Nation-State, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

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