You can read the French nuclear doctrine, they literally used to publicly measure their target capability by number of soviet cities destroyed and the amount of

You can read the French nuclear doctrine, they literally used to publicly measure their target capability by number of soviet cities destroyed and the amount of civilian casualties they will inflict as a % of the population of the USSR. That target btw was (at least as far as there late Cold War goes) the complete obliteration of 50 of the largest cities in the USSR, the destruction of 40% of its industrial capacity and the immediate death of 20% of its population. And back then they target the USSR not Russia so Poland and East Germany as well as other soviet republics were on their target list and very publicly so. France hasn’t really reduced their nuclear stockpile since the Cold War, their doctrine also hasn’t change much in fact they are the only country which said that it is willing to respond to terrorism with nuclear weapons if it comes to that. So yes their doctrine is very much still deterrence through unimaginable punishment.