Raoul Castex (Saint-Omer, 1878 - Villeneuve-de-Rivière, 1968) was a French Navy officer and admiral, and a military theorist.
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Castex joined the Navy in 1896, becoming the best student of his promotion at the École Navale. He became professor at the École de Guerre Navale.
In 1919, he was tasked with reorganising the historical services of the Navy
In 1928, he was promoted to contre-amiral.
On 2 July 1936, he was made Grand officer of the Legion of Honour. The same year, he founded the Institut des hautes études de la défense nationale, which he headed until 1939. He rose to vice-amiral in 1937, and finished his career heading the naval forces of the Northern fleet.
One of Castex' main achievements was the creation of the Institut des Hautes Études de la Défense Nationale (IHEDN, Institute of Higher Studies of National Defence), where he aimed at reducing the gap between civilian and military officials.
Between 1929 and 1939, Castex wrote Théories Stratégiques, where he exposes a thesis on the link between land and naval warfare, and on a national "gravity centre" which, in the case of France, would be situated off Europe. He argues that the "gravity centre" should have been displaced to Northern Africa before 1939, with installation of main armament factories and government centres.
In 1939, Castex suggested granting independence to French Indochina, deemed indefensible against the Japanese Empire, and to Syria and Lebanon, then under French mandate, as to make allies out of them.
In 1955, Castex published an article in the Revue de la Défense Nationale (National Defence review) titled "La Russie, rempart de l'Occident" (Russia, the wall of the West) where he theoricises the rise of China and her upcoming rivalry with the West, including Russia.