Lucien Poirier (1918 – 10 January 2013) was a general of the French Army and a theoretician of nuclear deterrence.

[1] Poirier began his military service at the beginning of World War II, after graduating from Special Military School of Saint-Cyr, and he was imprisoned in Germany until 1945.

[2] Poirier took part in the design of the French doctrine for use of nuclear weapons, the so-called "weak-to-strong strategy" (statégie du faible au fort), intended to deter the much stronger Soviet Union from invading France and Europe.

After being promoted to General in 1974, he retired to become an academic specializing in military strategy at Université de Paris (now Pantheon-Sorbonne University l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Pantheon-Sorbonne University à l’Ecole normale supérieure (ENS) and École nationale d'administration (ENA).

[3] Poirier authored several books on the subject of military strategy and nuclear deterrence: Porier remained active into his 90s and died on 9 or 10 January 2013.