Social governance in French Polynesia: the RSMA as a laboratory for policies and subjectivities

Following the end of nuclear testing in 1996, the military presence in French Polynesia was reconfigured around social and educational missions. This shift in military functions, from national defense to social management, reveals how militarization has become part of the daily lives of indigenous populations, shaping their subjectivities and trajectories. French Polynesia, a strategic overseas territory in the Pacific, occupies a key position in security policy, in a context of regional geopolitical tensions and growing rivalries. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Tahiti and Tubuai between 2021 and 2022, this presentation analyzes the role of the Régiment du Service Militaire Adapté (RSMA) as a (para)military mechanism for vocational training and social integration for young Polynesians in precarious situations. Enlisting in the RSMA is both a pragmatic choice in the face of a lack of local opportunities and a way of reconfiguring the relationship with the state and the nation. By placing this practice within the long history of French presence—from nuclear power to the symbolic reconstruction of civic ties—the analysis highlights the paradoxes of non-sovereign citizenship, where participation in the military becomes both a means of emancipation and a symptom of postcolonial dependence. The study thus proposes to rethink militarization as a form of social governance and a place of political invention, while emphasizing the strategic and geopolitical importance of the region in contemporary Pacific dynamics.