From one exceptionalism to another: France’s strategic relations with the United States and the United Kingdom in the post-Cold War era

ABSTRACT

The failed expedition of Suez in 1956 and France’s subsequent strategic ‘divorce’ from the United Kingdom and the United States lies at the heart of a policy paradigm that has dictated France’s defence posture from de Gaulle’s presidency to the end of the Cold War. Some crucial features of the Gaullist posture remain today enduring references for French presidents in the definition of France’s exceptionalism. While it is so, there have been significant changes since the 1990s when it comes to France’s strategic relations with the United States and the United Kingdom. This article demonstrates the extent and mechanisms of this rapprochement by analysing it through three dimensions of policy change: modes of action, institutional commitments and discourses. The article demonstrates the dimensions’ mutually reinforcing effects and argues that France’s exceptional posture has de facto been reversed.

KEYWORDS:

• France
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Gaullism
• defence policy
• policy change
• transatlantic relations

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Christopher Hill, Frédéric Ramel, Olivier Schmitt as well as anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ See in particular the work of Frédéric Bozo: Frédéric Bozo, ‘Sarkozy’s NATO policy: Towards France’s Atlantic alignment?’, European Political Science 9 (Jun. 2010), 176–88; Frédéric Bozo, ‘Explaining France’s NATO “normalisation” under Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012)’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies 12/4 (Dec. 2014), 379–91.

² See ibid. Michel Fortmann, David Haglund and Stéfanie von Hlatky (eds.), ‘France’s Return to NATO: Implications for transatlantic relations’, European Security 19/1 (Mar. 2010), 1–10; Annick Cizel and Stéfanie von Hlatky (eds.), ‘At the Crossroads: France, NATO and Europe since Reintegration’ The Journal of Transatlantic Studies 12/4 (Dec. 2014); Anne-Henry de Russé, La France dans l’OTAN: La culture militaire française et l’identité stratégique en question’, Focus Stratégique 22 (Paris: Institut français des relations internationales, Jun. 2010); Pernille Rieker, The French Return to NATO: Reintegration in Practice, not in Principle’, European Security 22/3 (Jul. 2013), 376–94.

³ See for instance Pascal Boniface, La France contre l’empire (Paris: Robert Laffont 2003); Reneo Lukic (ed.), Conflit et coopération dans les relations franco-américaines: DuGénéral deGaulle À Nicolas Sarkozy (Québec: Les presses de l’Université de Laval 2009). Charles Cogan, Oldest Allies, Guarded Friends: The United States and France since 1940 (Westport: Praeger 1994); Georges-Henri Soutou, ‘Three rifts, two reconciliations: Franco-American relations during the Fifth Republic’, in David Andrews (ed.) The Atlantic Alliance under Stress: US-European Relations after Iraq (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005), 102–27.

⁴ See for instance, Robert Tombs and Isabelle Tombs, That sweet enemy: Britain and France: The history of a love-hate relationship (London: Pimlico 2007); Antoine Capet, Britain, France and the entente cordiale since 1904 (London: Palgrave McMillan 2007); Richard Mayne, Douglas Johnson and Robert Tombs (eds.), Cross-Channel currents: 100 years of the Entente Cordiale (London: Taylor and Francis 2004); Alan Sharp and Glyn Stone (eds.), Anglo-French Relations in the Twentieth Century: Rivalry and Cooperation (London: Routledge 2000).

⁵ Emiliano Grossman (ed.), ‘US-France Relations in the age of Sarkozy’, European political Science, 9 (Jun. 2010).

⁶ Jolyon Howorth, ‘Sarkozy and the “American Mirage” or why Gaullist Continuity will Overshadow Transcendence’, European Political Science 9 (Jun. 2010), 199–212.

⁷ Vivien Schmidt and Claudio Radaelli, ‘Policy Change and Discourse in Europe: Conceptual and Methodological Issues’, West European Politics 27/2 (Mar. 2004), 184.

⁸ Pierre Muller, ‘Esquisse d’une théorie du changement dans l’action publique, Structures, acteurs et cadres cognitifs’, Revue française de science politique 55/1 (Feb. 2005), 155–87.

⁹ A central argument in David Auerswald and Stephen Saideman, NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2014), Ch.3.

¹⁰ James D. Morrow, Order within Anarchy. The Laws of War as an International Institution (Cambridge: Cambridge Univeristy Press 2015).

¹¹ Robert Jervis, ‘Realism, Neoliberalism and Cooperation: Understanding the Debate’, International Security 24/1 (Summer 1999), 62.

¹² Jervis, ‘Realism, Neoliberalism and Cooperation’, 59.

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ See for instance Jeffrey Checkel, ‘Why Comply? Social Learning and European Identity Change’, International Organization 55/3 (Jun. 2001), 553–88.

¹⁵ Pierre Lellouche, L’allié indocile: La France et l’OTAN, de La Guerre froide À l’Afghanistan (Paris: Editions du moment 2009), 38.

¹⁶ Lellouche, L’allié indocile, 39.

¹⁷ Tombs and Tombs, That Sweet Enemy, 614.

¹⁸ Martin Thomas, ‘From Dien Bien Phu to Evian: Anglo-French Imperial Relations, 1954–1962’, in Sharp and Stone (eds.), Anglo-French Relations in the Twentieth Century: Rivalry and Cooperation (London: Routledge 2000), 313.

¹⁹ Tombs and Tombs, That Sweet Enemy, 617–18.

²⁰ Maurice Vaïsse, ‘Post-Suez France’, in Wm. Roger Louis and Roger Owen (eds.), Suez 1956: The crisis and its consequences (Oxford: OUP 1989), 335, quoted in Tombs and Tombs, That Sweet Enemy, 617.

²¹ Tombs and Tombs, That Sweet Enemy, 617–18.

²² Beatrice Heuser, ‘Dunkirk, Dien Bien Phu, and Suez, or why France doesn’t Trust Allies and has Learned to Love the Bomb’, in Beatrice Heuser and Cyril Buffet (eds.), Haunted by History: Myths in International Relations (Oxford: Berghahn 1998), 168.

²³ Sebastian Reyn, Atlantis Lost: The American Experience with de Gaulle, 1958–1969 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2007), 218.

²⁴ Maurice Vaïsse, ‘Europe européenne ou Europe atlantique?’, in Geneviève Duchenne and Michel Dumoulin (eds.), L’Union européenne et les Etats-Unis (Brussels: Peter Lang 2003), 89–110.

²⁵ Among the vast amount of literature on General de Gaulle and his definition of France’s strategic posture, one can recommend Maurice Vaïsse, La grandeur: Politique étrangère Du général de Gaulle, 1958–1969 (Paris: Fayard 1998). For an interesting perspective specifically on transatlantic relations under de Gaulle, one can refer to Reyn, Atlantis Lost.

²⁶ De Gaulle, for instance, did not despise the ‘fundamental friendship’ that had existed since America’s independence; see Reyn, Atlantis Lost, 101.

²⁷ Hubert Védrine, Les mondes de François Mitterrand (Paris: Fayard 1996), 169.

²⁸ Vaïsse, La grandeur.

²⁹ Maurice Vaïsse, La puissance ou l’influence? La France dans le monde depuis 1958 (Paris: Fayard 2009), 170.

³⁰ Speech at the National Assembly in December 1979, quoted in Védrine, Les mondes de François Mitterrand, 75. I translate. Emphasis added.

³¹ Christian Lequesne and Maurice Vaïsse (eds.), La politique étrangère de Jacques Chirac (Paris: Riveneuve éditions 2013), 20.

³² Lequesne and Vaïsse, La politique étrangère de Jacques Chirac, 17–8.

³³ Rémy Ourdan, ‘WikiLeaks: Sarkozy l’Américain’, le Monde, 30 Nov. 2010. <http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2010/11/30/wikileaks-nicolas-sarkozy-l-americain_1447153_3210.html>.

³⁴ Stephen Lequet, ‘Nicolas Sarkozy et le gaullisme’, French Politics, Culture & Society, 28/1 (Spring 2010), 92.

³⁵ Nicolas Sarkozy, Libre (Paris: Robert Laffont 2001), 181, quoted in Lequet, ‘Nicolas Sarkozy et le gaullisme’, 92.

³⁶ French Ministry of Defence, Défense et sécurité nationale: le livre blanc (Paris: Odile Jacob 2008), 316–17.

³⁷ French Ministry of Defence, Défense et sécurité nationale, 311.

³⁸ François Hollande, ‘Grand discours sur la défense nationale’, Paris, 11 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ps32.fr/accueil/item/94-grand-discours-sur-la-d%C3%A9fense-nationale-du-11-mars>.

³⁹ Lellouche, L’allié indocile, 121.

⁴⁰ Frédéric Prater, ‘La France et la crise du Golfe’, Politique étrangère 56/2 (Spring 1991), 442.

⁴¹ Etienne De Durand, ‘Entente or oblivion: Prospects and Pitfalls of Franco-British Cooperation on Defence’, Future Defence Review Working Paper n°8 (London: Royal United Services Institute, September 2010) 5.

⁴² Vaïsse, La puissance ou l’influence? 215.

⁴³ Françoise de la Serre and Helen Wallace, ‘Les relations Franco-britanniques dans l’Europe de l’après-guerre froide’, Les études du CERI No.1 (Paris: Centre for international Studies and Research April 1995), 15.

⁴⁴ Michael Jay, ‘France et Royaume-Uni: Des relations riches et diversifies’, Défense Nationale 53 (1997), 6.

⁴⁵ Jacques Chirac, ‘Discours devant l’Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN)’, Paris, 8 Jun. 1996. <http://www.jacqueschirac-asso.fr/fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IHEDN-8-06-96.pdf>.

⁴⁶ Lellouche, L’allié indocile, 124.

⁴⁷ Anne-Sophie Paquez, ‘La politique de la France au Kosovo était-elle ‘gaulliste’?’, Masters thesis, University of Geneva, 2003, 13.

⁴⁸ Soutou, ‘Three rifts, two reconciliations’, 112.

⁴⁹ Thierry Tardy, ‘La France, l’Europe et la guerre du Kosovo’, Regards sur l’actualité 257 (2000), 4, cited in Paquez, La politique de La France au Kosovo, 16.

⁵⁰ Auerswald and Saideman, NATO in Afghanistan, 105 and 107.

⁵¹ Howorth, ‘Sarkozy and the “American mirage”’, 204.

⁵² Capitaine de Vaisseau Martin Flepp, cited in French Ministry of Defence, Défense et sécurité nationale. Livre blanc: Les débats (Paris: Odile Jacob 2008), 51.

⁵³ Lieutenant-colonel Bruno Foussard, cited in French Ministry of Defence, Défense et sécurité nationale. Livre blanc: Les débats (Paris: Odile Jacob 2008), 23.

⁵⁴ Vaïsse, La puissance ou l’influence? 225. The specific case of intelligence cooperation lies beyond the scope of the present article.

⁵⁵ Soutou, ‘Three rifts, two reconciliations’, 113.

⁵⁶ Interview with a high-ranking French military officer, Defence staff, February 2012.

⁵⁷ Intervention from a top-ranking French military officer during a ‘FR-UK Defence Forum’ closed seminar, Institut français des relations internationales, February 2012.

⁵⁸ Muriel Delaporte, ‘The Trilateral Strategic Initiative: An Allied Air Force Model’, Breaking defence, 21 Nov. 2013. <http://breakingdefense.com/2013/11/the-trilateral-strategic-initiative-an-allied-air-force-model/>.

⁵⁹ James Drape, ‘Building Partnership Capacity: Operation Harmattan and Beyond’, Air and Space Power Journal (Sep.-Oct. 2012) 83–4. <http://www.au.af.mil/au/afri/aspj/article.asp?id=105>

⁶⁰ Interview with a high-ranking French military officer, Defence staff, April 2014.

⁶¹ Bruxelles2, ‘Renfort britannique pour l’opération au Mali’, 13 Jan. 2013. <http://www.bruxelles2.eu/2013/01/13/renfort-britannique-pour-loperation-au-mali/>; Alex Newman, ‘Despite pledges, Obama put U.S. troops in Mali’, The New American, 16 May 2013. <http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/15300-despite-pledges-obama-put-u-s-troops-in-mali>.

⁶² Michael Codner, ‘The British military contribution to operations in Mali: Is this mission creep?’, RUSI, 30 Jan. 2013. <https://rusi.org/commentary/british-military-contribution-operations-mali-mission-creep>.

⁶³ Stephanie Sanok Kostro and Meredith Boyle, ‘French Counterterrorism in the Sahel: Implications for U.S. Policy’, CSIS, Critical questions, 4 Feb. 2014. <https://www.csis.org/analysis/french-counterterrorism-sahel-implications-us-policy>; Isabelle Lasserre and Thierry Oberlé, Notre guerre secrète au Mali (Paris: Fayart 2013), 225.

⁶⁴ Interview with a researcher at the Institut français des relations internationales, July 2014.

⁶⁵ François Hollande, ‘President Hollande seeks Broad Coalition for Syria Action’, Presidential statement, 3 Sep. 2013. <http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/President-Hollande-seeks-broad>.

⁶⁶ Interview with a senior British civil servant, MOD, London, November 2013.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Interview with a high-ranking French military officer, Defence Staff, London, March 2014.

⁶⁹ U.S. Navy, ‘US, French Naval Aviators Cross Skies, Decks Together’, 20 Jan. 2014. <http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=78694>.

⁷⁰ As is evident in the NATO ‘Warsaw Summit Communiqué’, 9 Jul. 2016. <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_133169.htm>.

⁷¹ Interview with a French civilian adviser to the EU, London, October 2014.

⁷² Interview with a French diplomat, Quai d’Orsay, Brussels, October 2014.

⁷³ Howorth, ‘Sarkozy and the “American mirage”’, 210.

⁷⁴ De Durand, ‘Entente or oblivion’, 7.

⁷⁵ Lellouche, L’allié indocile, 141.

⁷⁶ Vaïsse, La puissance ou l’influence? 215; Soutou, ‘Three rifts, two reconciliations’, 112.

⁷⁷ Interview with a researcher at the Institut français des relations internationales, Paris, July 2014.

⁷⁸ Quoted in Frédéric Bozo, ‘Explaining France’s NATO “normalisation”’, 379.

⁷⁹ Jean-Pierre Chevènement, ‘Le “retour” de la France dans l’OTAN: Une décision inopportune’, Politique étrangère 74/4 (Winter 2009), 878.

⁸⁰ Hubert Védrine, ‘Rapport pour le Président de la République Française sur les conséquences du retour de la France dans le commandement intégré de l’OTAN, sur l’avenir de la relation transatlantique et les perspectives de l’Europe de la défense’, 14 Nov. 2012, 10.

⁸¹ See for instance, Annick Cizel and Stéfanie von Hlatky, ‘From Exceptional to Special? A Reassessment of France–NATO Relations since Reintegration’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies 12/4 (Dec. 2014), 353–66.

⁸² Cour des Comptes, ‘La participation de la France aux corps militaires européens permanents’, in Rapport Public Annuel 2011, Feb. 2011, 381–88.

⁸³ Her Majesty’s Government, ‘Treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the French Republic for Defence and Security Co-operation’, Cm 7976, London, 2 Nov. 2010.

⁸⁴ Liam Fox, ‘Oral Answers to Questions,’ House of Commons, 2 Nov. 2010. <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101102/debtext/101102-0001.htm>.

⁸⁵ Interview with former Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox, March 2014.

⁸⁶ Hollande, ‘Grand discours sur la défense nationale’.

⁸⁷ See the extensive declaration that followed the 2016 bilateral summit David Cameron and François Hollande, ‘UK-France Summit: Annex on security and defence’, Amiens, 3 Mar. 2016. <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-france-summit-2016-documents>.

⁸⁸ Her Majesty’s Government, ‘Treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the French Republic relating to Joint Radiographic/Hydrodynamics Facilities’, Cm 7975, London, 2 Nov. 2010.

⁸⁹ Pierre Mélandri, ‘Aux origines de la coopération nucléaire Franco-américaine’, in Maurice Vaïsse (ed.), La France et l’atome (Bruxelles: Bruylant 1994), 249.

⁹⁰ Charles Mohr, U.S. Secretly Helped France Develop Nuclear Weapons, an Expert Writes’, New York Times, 27 May 1989. <http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/28/world/us-secretly-helped-france-develop-nuclear-weapons-an-expert-writes.html>.

⁹¹ Mélandri, ‘Aux origines de la coopération nucléaire Franco-américaine’, 249.

⁹² Ibid.

⁹³ Matthew Harries, ‘Britain and France as nuclear partners’, Survival 54/1 (Jan. 2012), 11.

⁹⁴ Bruno Tertrais, ‘Entente nucléaire: Options for UK-French nuclear cooperation’, BASIC Trident Commission, Discussion paper 3, Jun. 2012, 10.

⁹⁵ David Cameron and François Hollande, ‘France-UK Summit: Declaration on Security and Defence’, 31 Jan. 2014, <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-france-summit-2014>; David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, ‘UK-France declaration on Security and Defence’, Paris, 17 Feb. 2012, <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-france-declaration-on-security-and-defence>.

⁹⁶ The sample of French actors consists of 21 high-ranking and top-ranking military officers, six diplomats and two political advisers involved in cooperation with the British and the Americans, interviewed between January 2012 and December 2014.

⁹⁷ This section expands on an argument we made in Alice Pannier and Olivier Schmitt, ‘Institutionalised cooperation and policy convergence in European defence: Lessons from the relations between France, Germany and the United Kingdom’, European Security 23/3 (May 2014) 270–89.

⁹⁸ French Ministry of Defence, Livre blanc sur La défense (Paris: La Documentation française 1994) preface. Emphasis added.

⁹⁹ French Ministry of Defence, Défense et sécurité nationale, 90. Emphasis added.

¹⁰⁰ Nicolas Sarkozy, ‘La France, la défense européenne et l’OTAN au 21ème siècle’, Fondation pour la recherche stratégique, (11 Mar. 2009) 3, <http://www.frstrategie.org/barreFRS/publications/dossiers/2009/colloque_otan/discours/sarkozy.pdf>.

¹⁰¹ Hollande, ‘Grand discours sur la défense nationale’.

¹⁰² Interview with a French senator, Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Paris, September 2013.

¹⁰³ Ibid.

¹⁰⁴ Sénat, ‘Rapport d’information fait au nom de la Commission des affaires étrangères, de la défense et des forces armées par le groupe de travail ‘Quelle Europe pour quelle défense?’, 3 Jul. 2013.

¹⁰⁵ Védrine, Rapport pour le Président de La République Française, 14.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 17.

¹⁰⁷ Interview with a French member of the National assembly, Member of the Defence Committee, Paris, September 2013.

¹⁰⁸ Claire Chick, ‘Britain, France and Defence’, Franco-British Council Report, 15 October (London: Franco-British Council 2009).

¹⁰⁹ David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, ‘Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation’, London, 2 Nov. 2010. <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-france-summit-2010-declaration-on-defence-and-security-co-operation>.

¹¹⁰ Cameron and Sarkozy, ‘UK-France Declaration on Security and Defence’.

¹¹¹ Barack Obama and François Hollande, ‘France and the US Enjoy a Renewed Alliance’, The Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-and-hollande-france-and-the-us-enjoy-a-renewed-alliance/2014/02/09/039ffd34-91af-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html>.

¹¹² Interview with a French diplomat, NATO, Brussels, October 2014.

¹¹³ Interview with a French diplomat, NATO, Brussels, October 2014.

¹¹⁴ Interview with a high-ranking French military officer, Defence staff, London, April 2014.

¹¹⁵ Interview with a French diplomat, NATO, Brussels, October 2014.

¹¹⁶ Interview with a French diplomat, NATO, Brussels, October 2014.

¹¹⁷ Interview with a high-ranking French military officer, Army staff, Paris, February 2012.

¹¹⁸ Interview, ibid.

¹¹⁹ Interview with a top-ranking French military officer, Army staff, London, January 2012.

¹²⁰ Interview with a high-ranking French military officer, Defence staff, Paris, February 2012.

Additional information

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Alice Pannier

Alice Pannier received her Ph.D. in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris, with joint supervision from King’s College London in 2016. She is currently a Postdoctoral fellow at IRSEM (Paris) and a Research Associate at Sciences Po’s Centre for International Research (CERI).