Yanis Hankaoui has begun his doctoral contract at LATTS under the supervision of Pascal Ughetto and co-supervision of Mathias Thura (University of Strasbourg, SAGE). His thesis topic is entitled: "The Army in the Digital Age: Contemporary Technologies and Transformations in Military Combat Activity through the Case of 'Battlefield Digitization'". Following on from action research conducted for the Command Doctrine and Training Center, this work will aim to understand the extent to which the digital transformation of infantry operational functions has contributed to reconfiguring combat practices (planning, maneuvering, etc.), the organization of combat formations at the tactical level (combined arms battlegroup/regiment – combined arms sub-battlegroup/companies – sections), and professional relationships.
With a master's degree in social history of the armed forces and internal security forces (Sorbonne University), his early work focused on the socio-historical origins of security management of migration, concentrating on innovations in public action practices and administrative organization (Yanis Hankaoui, Belgian Immigration and Migration in Nord-Pas-de-Calais: A Long Quiet River of Assimilation (1840-1890), Archives & Culture, 2022).
Eager to acquire analytical frameworks that would enable him to further his organizational study of public administrations responsible for internal and external security, and the actual work of the actors involved, he subsequently enrolled in the MACOR master's program: change management and sociology of human resources in his second year. In this context, he conducted action research on the changes in the roles of section leader (lieutenant) and unit commander (captain) in the infantry, brought about by the "digitization of the battlefield" (Information and Communication Technologies and Command: Junior infantry officers facing the digitization of the battlefield).
Alongside his university studies, from February 2022 to October 2023, he held successive positions the positions of research editor and research officer at the Command Doctrine and Training Center (CDEC), where his mission was to conduct, organize, and lead applied research in the social sciences (sociology, history, and political science) on the concept of moral forces, with a view to informing the Army's doctrinal thinking. He remains an associate researcher at the CDEC and an occasional internal trainer at the École de Guerre (director of dissertations for trainee officers).