// Comparison

Cyber vs Cybertactique: 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
3/52014
Cybertactique

Conduire la guerre numérique

Bertrand Boyer

The tactical companion to Cyberstratégie — how cyber operations are actually conducted, from planning to execution — 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 who liked Cyberstratégie and want the operational level: how doctrine translates into conducting digital operations. Military and strategy-minded.

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 tooling; this is operational art and doctrine, not a hands-on guide. From 2014, so the tech context has moved on.

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.
  • The tactical/operational counterpart to Boyer's Cyberstratégie — the two read as a pair.
  • A French/European military-strategic perspective on conducting cyber operations.
  • From 2014: doctrine endures, but pair with newer material for the current operational environment.

How they compare

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

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

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

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