I was struggling to recall facts about Vauban – so I checked Wikipedia. It provided (in part) the following account of the famous military engineer:

His principles for fortifications were widely used for nearly 100 years, while aspects of his offensive tactics remained in use until the mid-twentieth century. He viewed civilian infrastructure as closely connected to military effectiveness and worked on many of France’s major ports, as well as projects like the Canal de la Bruche, which remain in use today. He founded the Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires, whose curriculum was based on his publications on engineering design, strategy and training.

His economic tract, La Dîme royale, used statistics in support of his arguments, making it a precursor of modern economics. Later destroyed by royal decree, it contained radical proposals for a more even distribution of the tax burden.

I visited Breisach today – one of his projects:

Back to the question – what would he contribute today to address the biggest threats facing us?

– to protect the French language (or, if we give him a global mandate) all languages?

– to protect the countryside I am so enjoying cycling through – especially food production (read, climate change)

– to protect us against Big Tech – especially AI – where a handful of CEOs are getting to make policies that will affect everyone on the planet, with little accountability?

And given he is not around, how are we going to step up and take on these challenges?

I’ve always liked that pithy description of personal responsibility: “If it is to be, it is up to me!”

More rumination required.