Abstract:

France’s international position has deteriorated during much of the century. Two significant and constant strands run through this period : the obsession with security in the face of the 'German danger', at least until the very decisive 'choice in favour of Europe' made in 1950 ; and its often difficult relations with the English-speaking countries, which appear to want to contain French ambitions. But France’s foreign policy also contains stances which serve more to reassure the French than to increase France’s actual influence in the world. General de Gaulle’s action after 1958 was a good remedy for the French syndrome after the 1940 defeat. Now that the French have been cured of this anguish, is it not time they exchanged their rhetoric of grandeur for a search for effectiveness ?


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