{"id":78947,"date":"2021-10-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/la-france-une-puissance-contrariee\/"},"modified":"2024-10-31T12:01:21","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T11:01:21","slug":"la-france-une-puissance-contrariee-letat-du-monde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/la-france-une-puissance-contrariee-letat-du-monde\/","title":{"rendered":"La France, une puissance contrari\u00e9e"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Badie<\/span> Bertrand and Vidal<\/span> Dominique (eds), La France, une puissance contrari\u00e9e. L\u2019\u00e9tat du monde 2022<\/em> [France, a Frustrated Power: The State of the World 2022], <\/em>Paris: La D\u00e9couverte (\u00c9tat du monde), August 2021, 272\u00a0p.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \"\"\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Since the fall of France in 1940, the international order has altered radically: after a period of decolonization in a bipolar world, and following the end of the brief interlude of unchallenged American domination, we are in a time of globalization, with the emergence of new powers and the growing interdependence of economies. To this can be added the appearance of new actors\u2014regional organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multinationals, and social groups\u2014that influence international affairs and challenge the power of the state. In an era where postmodernism is questioning the concepts of progress, modernity, universality, and Western values, the very foundations of the politics of influence and intervention are being shaken.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In this new world, where does that leave French power, or its \u201cability to impose its will outside its borders,\u201d to use Raymond Aron and Max Weber\u2019s definition of power? This question has been addressed by historians, researchers, teachers, journalists, and diplomats, under the editorship of Bertrand Badie and Dominique Vidal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their contributions are organized into three parts. The first, and probably most informative, deals with the origins of the French culture of international relations. Robert Frank opens the book with a historical account explaining the source of this culture of power\u2014in the sense of a habitus<\/em>, or frame of mind\u2014that is such a distinctive feature of France. This was strengthened by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, which gave the French President a leading role in foreign policy: the nation\u2019s power is now merged with the power of a single individual. The mark left by Charles de Gaulle, who is mentioned in the great majority of articles, is afforded particular attention in Olivier Zajec\u2019s article, \u201cLa \u2018variable\u2019 atlantiste\u201d (\u201cThe Atlanticist \u2018Variable\u2019\u201d). In choosing to acquire nuclear weapons and then to leave the integrated command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), De Gaulle laid the foundations of a culture of long-term strategic independence. The recent threat to leave NATO following the Australian submarine crisis is evidence of an \u201cawkward relationship\u201d with the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three other factors are crucial for understanding French foreign policy positions: first, the aftereffects of colonial history, as outlined in Alain Ruscio\u2019s article; second, the ambivalent relationship with the European Union, which, as Christian Lequesne explains, represents both a vehicle for national power and a loss of sovereignty; third, the burden represented by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is addressed implicitly in various articles, because it still forms the basis for interference in the name of the \u201cresponsibility to protect,\u201d but places the birthplace of human rights in an awkward position when, contrary to the progressive ideas it espouses, it supports dictatorships or negotiates arms sales with countries that are at war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second part addresses the instruments of foreign policy: the president\u2019s diplomatic unit, the foreign ministry, the army, arms sales, intelligence, economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, and lobbying. The final part is devoted to case studies that provide insights by geographical area\u2014relations with the United States, China, Germany, Africa, the Middle East\u2014and by theme\u2014the European project, multilateralism, interventionism, climate change, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these two parts are successful in providing a comprehensive overview of policy instruments on the one hand and a situation report on the other, they come up against the limitations of the exercise: the desire to be exhaustive results in subject overviews rather than detailed analyses. Moreover, by presenting articles by politically engaged writers\u2014such as Ren\u00e9 Backmann\u2019s piece on Emmanuel Macron\u2019s diplomacy, or Dominique Vidal\u2019s contribution on the France\/Israel\/Palestine relationship\u2014alongside more academic background articles\u2014on the origins, rise, and difficulties of economic diplomacy, by Yves Doutriaux, for example\u2014Badie and Vidal have chosen to produce an eclectic collection, the credibility of which may be undermined by the militancy of some of the authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, irrespective of how the authors approach their subjects and where their sympathies lie, one idea, one key force, stands out: now that it has become a middle power, from the economic, military, demographic, and cultural perspectives, France is attempting to defend its status by every means possible, conducting \u201csecond-tier diplomacy,\u201d and making defense and the construction of symbols the foundations of its foreign policy. This frequently means a fondness for conspicuous or spectacular initiatives\u2014such as the Iranian Foreign Minister\u2019s surprise visit to the G7 summit in 2019\u2014at the expense of consistency of actions or positions. In other words, objectives that are often too ambitious given the limited resources available, and the risk of arrogance, failure, or humiliation. Is French foreign policy too \u201cemotional\u201d? In this respect, Pierre Grosser\u2019s article entitled \u201cQuand la grandeur masque les d\u00e9faites\u201d (\u201cWhen Greatness Obscures Defeat\u201d) brilliantly illustrates how French diplomacy has often been built on a reaffirmation of power in response to defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, according to Bertrand Badie, it is no longer a question of acting like a great power, but instead like a \u201cglobal\u201d power that knows how to incorporate into its foreign policy the variety of cultures, the multilateral community, and the changing face of interdependence that, in addition to economic relationships, involves exposure to health, environmental, and cyber risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from French and edited by Cadenza Academic Translations <\/em>\u2022 Translator: Se\u00e1n Morris, Editor: Sophie Borresen, Senior Editor: Mark Mellor <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Badie Bertrand and Vidal Dominique (eds), La France, une puissance contrari\u00e9e. L\u2019\u00e9tat du monde 2022 [France, a Frustrated Power: The State of the World 2022], Paris: La D\u00e9couverte (\u00c9tat du monde), August 2021, 272\u00a0p. Since the fall of France in 1940, the international order has altered radically: after a period of decolonization in a bipolar … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[203,212],"keyword":[889,859,1048,1092],"class_list":["post-78947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-seen-heard","tag-geopolitique-en","tag-societe-en","keyword-politique-etrangere-en","keyword-france-en","keyword-geopolitique-en","keyword-pouvoir-politique-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78947"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99198,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78947\/revisions\/99198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78947"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=78947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}