// Comparison

Cyber vs Technopolitique: 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
4/52024
Technopolitique

Comment la technologie fait de nous des soldats

Asma Mhalla

A sharp, current essay on how digital technology, AI and platform power have turned citizens into actors in a permanent informational and geopolitical conflict, by a prominent French tech-politics scholar.

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 want a contemporary French framing of the politics of technology — surveillance, AI, platform power, information warfare — at the intersection of geopolitics and daily life.

Skip this if

Technical readers wanting attacks or defence; it's a strategy/policy book aimed at decision-makers, not practitioners.
Readers wanting technical or security how-to; it's a political essay and big-picture argument, not a practitioner's text.

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 very current (2024) French framing of technology as a domain of permanent geopolitical and informational conflict.
  • Mhalla is a widely-followed voice on tech politics — the argument is sharp and contemporary.
  • Big-picture and political: read for the framing of AI/platform power, not for technique.

How they compare

Cyber and Technopolitique are both rated 4/5 in our catalog. Pick by topic preference and reading style rather than by rating.

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

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

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