A French commander in strategic position is competent, yet feeling unease (13)
I believe the answer is:
uncomfortable
'a french commander in strategic position is competent yet feeling unease' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'a french commander in strategic position is competent' is the wordplay.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'commander in strategic position' becomes 'comfort' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'is competent' becomes 'able' (similar in meaning).
'un'+'comfort'+'able'='UNCOMFORTABLE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for uncomfortable that I've seen before include "Uneasy, awkward" , "Ill-fitting" , "Awkward - embarrassed" , "Awkward - not conducive to relaxing" , "Ill at ease" .)