The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, will today present to French military and security officials plans for a radical overhaul of defence policy.
The plans are the first rethink of the country's strategic aims in 14 years.
The White Book on Defence and Homeland Security prioritises intelligence gathering and greater spending on satellite and airborne drones, paid for in part by reducing staff.
The defence ministry will need to shed 54,000 jobs from its 340,000 staff to pay for the plans.
The paper also flags a stronger involvement for France in EU defence policy, greater cooperation with the US and returning, at least partially, to Nato's military command.
A return of any kind to Nato will be significant. Former president Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command in 1966, and since then the country has remained outside the alliance's nuclear group and planning committee.
The document, anticipated eagerly by European and US diplomats, is a means of gauging Sarkozy's strategic plans, after France's opposition to the Iraq war.
France, like many other European countries, is grappling with aging military equipment, tight budget constraints and threats such as terrorism, drug trafficking and virtual crime.
Speaking about the review, the Defence minister, Herve Morin, said "Weapons always need to evolve. We are adapting our defences against such new threats as, for example, terrorist threats, the risk of nuclear proliferation."
"There is no risk of an invasion today ... but on the other hand we need to be able deploy forces to participate in the stabilization of regions or zones in crisis."
France's military is stretched thin. It currently has around 10,900 troops deployed in places such as Ivory Coast, Kosovo and Lebanon, plus Afghanistan and Chad, two countries where more French forces are expected in coming weeks and months.
For the first time, French defence planners are putting an emphasis on anticipation of future threats. The new strategy, to be discussed in parliament later this month, foresees no expansion of France's nuclear arsenal, though it says that it will remain the country's "life insurance."
The review will play a key role in shaping France's five-year military planning law expected to be passed later this year.
It also calls for more investment in space-based monitoring systems, long-distance radar for ballistic missile threats and new technology to prevent cyber attacks.
Morin warned of shifting "centres of gravity" in the fight against nuclear proliferation at a time when nuclear programs in countries such as Iran have raised widespread concerns within the international community.
France has been a leader in trying to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.