The «Security-Defence Continuum» cycle in a nutshell
Designed for students aged 18 to 30 in the Ile-de-France region The «Continuum Security-Defence» course has been organised every year since 2011 by the IHEDN Endowment Fund with the support of the SNCF Group's Rail Safety Department.
The «Security and Defence Continuum» cycle provides in-depth information on the defence and security policy of France and the safety issues at SNCF. In particular, it relies on direct exchanges between participants, military personnel and public service professionals.
The programme takes place over four days, with welcome in full board After conferences introductory course at the École Militaire (Paris 7e), the session alternates between immersion visits a military unit and sites representative of the SNCF's security business.
The aim is to encourage collective, decompartmentalised thinking on the security-defence continuum and the’spirit of defence, around specific topics.
The participants' conclusions were presented at the closing session, in the presence of authorities from the SNCF and the IHEDN.
The course ends with the issue of a certificate.
Le 13e The «Security and Defence Continuum» cycle took place from Tuesday 31 March to Friday 3 April 2026.
The 30 participants for the 2026 session, all students and most of them apprentices, were selected from around a hundred applications.
In particular, they have :
- To exchange ideas with high-level speakers at the conferences :
- Defence and national security: the challenges of our time
- The SNCF and defence and security issues
- The railway: a major player in military mobility in Europe
- Visited on 121st train regiment (Montlhéry, 91), the’SNCF Safety University (Ermont, 95) and the National Rail Safety Centre (Paris).
- Conducted an in-depth review within three committees, The conference was attended by authorities from the SNCF and the IHEDN, as well as the heads of some of the university courses represented.
The trainees made recommendations on the following themes, before exchanging views with the audience:
- COMMITTEE 1 : Industrial sovereignty and strategic autonomy: railways
- COMMITTEE 2 : Protecting rail infrastructure: towards a common defence and security doctrine?
- COMMITTEE 3 : Cybersecurity and resilience of rail infrastructures to hybrid threats
The training attendance certificates were then presented to them in the Salon des Maréchaux, at the École Militaire, by the Engineer General of Armaments Caroline SALAHUN, Head of the National Session Department of the IHEDN, and by Xavier ROCHE, Director of Security for the SNCF Group.
