In rejoining the Atlantic Alliance’s integrated military structure, France is taking a decision that has weighty consequences because it is loaded with meaning. The low intensity of public debate raised by this decision is proof that the public have lost sight and understanding of the arguments behind General de Gaulle’s choice in 1966. Things have to be put back in their historical perspective to remind people that, at a time of great upheaval, reason and common sense were the fundamental values that guided France.
France and NATO-a Short Memory
The first weeks of 2009, during which the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty has been celebrated, have also seen two important French foreign policy announcements: firstly, the President’s official confirmation that France would participate fully in NATO’s integrated military structure; then his decision that a German Army unit would be permanently based on French territory, in Alsace.
These two declarations, the first of which was no surprise in that it had been under discussion for many months, are very different in the scope of their practical implications, but equally important in their symbolic resonance and therefore in their consequences for the perceptions which our fellow-citizens and foreign observers may have of the direction of France’s foreign policy.
Both cases clearly involve a break with the policies in this area followed by France over at least the last 40 years, motivated by the desire to create and develop a truly European defence. It does seem, however, that the paucity of debate aroused by these decisions obscures the reasons which caused our leaders in the 1960s to break with the undertakings of the previous political regime. A brief reminder of a few facts is therefore required.
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