Gen. André Beaufre (1902 – 1975), the father of contemporary French strategic thought and required reading at French military schools… There is a single thread that runs through Beaufre’s half-dozen books about strategy – a desire to understand the nature of war in the modern nuclear era, and to use that insight to resurrect strategy and elaborate a strategic method appropriate for great powers today. – War on the Rocks Photo: French nuclear air-launched cruise missile.