Talk:Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale

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[edit] GIGN and special forces

I don't think we can really say the GIGN is from the special forces. They are not under commande of the COS (special operations command). David.Monniaux 17:22, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

I think we can (see similar categories, like Category:Special forces of Germany; see also List of special forces). The GIGN fits the definition of Special forces: "relatively small military units raised and trained for special operations missions such as Special Reconnaissance (SR), Unconventional Warfare (UW), Direct Action (DA), Terrorism (T), Counter-Terrorism (CT), and Foreign Internal Defense (FID). These highly-trained, often self-sufficient units rely on stealth, speed, close teamwork, and specialized equipment." This definition does not exclude French units not under command of COS. Apokrif 13:32, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

The problem is "military". While technically the GIGN is a military unit of the Gendarmerie, it effectively carries on extreme police actions, not military actions. Of course I have a very naive view of the topic and a member of the GIGN would certainly have much more interesting things to say, but I think that intuitively, you can compare actions of the GIGN to actions of the RAID more easily than you could compare them to, say, the Naval commando.

Besides (and without any particular connection to the present discussion), I suspect that there is a tendency to have categories "the Special Forces in my country is bigger than yours". This is neither a sign of maturity for the Wikipedian, nor a sign of quality for the unit. Rama 14:29, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

The lists I link to include police forces and even a unit of the German customs. I think we could change the definition in Special forces accordingly. It's difficult to distinguish special police forces and special military forces insofar as both perform the same type of missions, i.e. law enforcement in difficult situations (e.g. hostage rescue for the SAS and GIGN, the assault on Ouvea cave for GIGN and naval commandos, drug enforcement for naval commandos, protection of civilians in war zones for EPIGN). Apokrif 14:51, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Special forces really seems to be about purely military actions. Even if for some reason someone had forgotten to mention the GIGN as one crucial step toward modern security and intervention groups, I cannot but notice that no mentions are made of the much-publicised US groups (SWAT, Hostage Rescue Team and such). Rama 15:15, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Please see list of special forces. It includes both military and police special ops units. Also the article states clearly: (...) French special forces operate under the Special Operations Command. First circle units are permanently under that command, while second circle units may be called in if necessary: (...) Second circle: (...) Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (...) --Nkcs 02:38, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Anyway, it would be useful to have something like a "SWAT Unit" or "special police unit" category. Apokrif 02:13, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

The Gendarmerie Nationale is part of the army, whereas the Police Nationale is not; then the GIGN should be regarded as a military organization. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.123.172.126 (talk • contribs).

Micheletti's book says the GIGN performs "blue" missions (gendarmerie missions) but also "khaki" missions (with the COS). Apokrif 18:36, 20 September 2006 (UTC)