France and NATO from 1966 to Kosovo: Coming full circle?

This article traces the relationship between France and NATO from the 1960s to the 1990s. It focuses on the reasons for the France‐NATO rapprochement of the 1990s, but also underlines the very real tensions between France and the Alliance during these years. It analyses the question of French reintegration into the Integrated Military Structure (IMS) which seemed probable in the summer of 1997, and suggests that this issue in itself is a useful illustration of wider misunderstandings between France and NATO. The article also investigates the reaction of the French military to the closing of the door to possible French reintegration into the IMS in the aftermath of the NATO Madrid Summit of July 1997 and comments briefly on France's participaiton in the conflict in Kosovo.