French Diplomacy: Understanding France's Global Strategies

French diplomacy has a long and complex history, with the nation's foreign relations evolving over centuries. From its revolutionary ideals of national sovereignty to its modern-day involvement in global issues, France has played a significant role in world affairs. Today, France is a key power in Western Europe, influencing global economic and political agendas, particularly within the European Union, of which it is a founding member. French diplomacy has recently focused on issues such as gender equality, LGBT+ rights, and environmental goals, while also addressing military interventions and economic relations.

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France's role in the UN

France has been a member of the United Nations since its founding in 1945 and is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, along with the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China. France plays a leading role in the UN and is involved in influencing and driving the debate on various issues threatening international peace and security. It is heavily involved in drafting various documents, such as resolutions, that are then debated and adopted by the Security Council and other UN bodies.

As a nuclear-weapon state and a power with intervention and mediation capabilities, France plays a significant role in the management of international crises, the promotion of human rights, and the respect for international law, particularly international humanitarian law in conflict environments. France actively contributes to disarmament efforts and the enforcement of non-proliferation treaties. Additionally, France has consistently advocated for the "universal and indissociable nature of human rights," drawing on its own historical declaration of human rights.

France also actively participates in other major UN bodies and their subsidiary organs. For instance, France is a member of the Conference on Disarmament and has been elected to the Human Rights Council. Furthermore, France played a pivotal role in the 2015 UN Paris Climate Conference (COP21) and was instrumental in developing and enacting the Paris Climate Agreement. France co-organized the Climate Ambition Summit in 2020 with the United Nations Secretary-General to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

Relations with NATO

France was one of the founding members of NATO and hosted the organisation for 15 years. However, in 1966, France withdrew from NATO's integrated military command, although it remained an ally. France's relationship with NATO has been strained at times, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s when there was a significant anti-American sentiment in the country and French politicians demanded more aid from the United States. During this time, France was also critical of the United States' interference in its internal politics and its late intervention in Vietnam. Despite these tensions, the United States provided significant military aid to France within the framework of NATO, especially during the Indochina War in the 1950s.

In 2007, President Sarkozy took steps to normalise relations with NATO, and in 2009, France became a fully integrated NATO member once again. France is now the third-largest contributor to NATO's military and civil budgets, and it plays a key role in fostering a balanced and mutually beneficial transatlantic relationship. France has also been an active participant in NATO missions, such as the non-combat advisory and capacity-building mission in Iraq.

France's current relationship with NATO is characterised by its commitment to European defence and its support for establishing an enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltic States and Poland. France has also been an important contributor to NATO's cyber defence efforts and has worked to maintain open lines of communication with Russia, in line with NATO's non-aggressive posture towards the country.

At the 2018 Brussels Summit, the Heads of State and Government celebrated the importance of the transatlantic relationship and reaffirmed the values, principles, and rules of the Alliance. They also endorsed a number of initiatives to address new security challenges, including a Strengthened Resilience Commitment and a Climate Change and Security Action Plan.

Foreign policy under Hollande

François Hollande's presidency, from 2012 to 2017, was dominated by rising unemployment, protests against reforms of the labour code, and the fight against Islamic terrorism, mainly against ISIS. Hollande's foreign policy was influenced by these domestic issues, as well as the growing migration crisis in Europe and instability in the Middle East.

Hollande's foreign policy was also shaped by his desire to support the United States and maintain strong Franco-German relations. During his presidency, France was an active military ally of the United States, particularly in the fight against terrorism. Despite occasional divergences, Paris’s diplomatic and military activism supported U.S. interests, and France was considered Washington's closest ally on certain security issues. Hollande also worked closely with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to address the migration crisis, supporting the European Commission’s idea to relocate asylum seekers across Europe according to national quotas.

In the Middle East, Hollande supported airstrikes in Syria in 2013 after the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against its citizens. However, he refused to act unilaterally when the United Kingdom and the United States opted to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapon stores instead. Hollande also intervened in Mali and Syria, leading some to brand him a neo-conservative. During his presidency, France exported more than 10 billion euros worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and delivered tens of thousands of bombs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2016.

Hollande's presidency was marked by several terrorist attacks, including the November 2015 Paris Attacks and the 2016 Nice Attacks, which influenced his foreign and security policies. Following these attacks, Hollande increased the defence budget by 3.5 billion euros and re-established the French National Guard for the first time since 1872 to serve as an operational reserve for the army and the police.

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The Franco-Ottoman alliance

French diplomacy is characterised by its energetic and energetic posture, as well as its strong economic and military position. France has historically sought to strengthen the global economic and political influence of the EU, and its role in common European defence and collective security.

One of the most notable examples of French diplomacy is the Franco-Ottoman alliance, also known as the Franco-Turkish alliance. This alliance was established in 1536 between Francis I, King of France, and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire. It was a strategic and tactical alliance that lasted intermittently for over two and a half centuries and was particularly influential during the Italian Wars.

The formation of an alliance between a Christian king and a Muslim emperor was highly controversial at the time and caused a scandal throughout Christendom. Despite this, the alliance was beneficial to both parties. For France, it provided support against the Habsburgs and Spanish dominance. For the Ottomans, it provided an opportunity to intervene in European politics. The alliance was also notable for being non-ideological, based solely on mutual interests rather than shared religious or cultural values.

French Revolution diplomacy

The French Revolution (1789-1799) had a significant impact on the nature of French diplomacy, both during and after this period. The revolution's messianic ideal was largely incompatible with the principles of compromise and diplomatic dialogue, and its diplomats were often regarded as a vague network of Jacobins. However, recent research suggests that this interpretation may be misguided, and that the primary goal of revolutionary diplomacy was to convince foreign governments to recognise French national sovereignty rather than to convert foreign peoples to revolutionary principles.

The French Revolution redefined diplomacy, shifting it away from its traditional focus on reconciling monarchs and towards serving the interests of the French Republic and its people. This transformation was facilitated by the absence of a monarchical foundation, allowing diplomacy to be placed in the service of the "public thing," or the Republic. Republican diplomats were tasked with representing the singularity of the French nation abroad while negotiating according to the plurality of national interests shared by all European nations. This approach required diplomats to investigate and understand the political, economic, moral, and cultural dimensions of other nations.

The military successes of the Grande Nation under the Directory played a crucial role in establishing republican diplomacy in Europe. Diplomatic agents associated with the French Revolution employed military blackmail as a means of imposing themselves on European monarchies, reflecting their primary duty to assist French armies. This led to a militarisation of diplomatic practices, with diplomats serving as spies for generals and diplomatic information being transformed into military intelligence.

The French Revolution's impact on diplomacy extended beyond France's borders. In the United States, the revolution's republican ideals influenced political debates, dividing the elite into pro-French and pro-British factions. The Democratic-Republican Party, led by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, celebrated these ideals, while the Federalist Party, led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, sought to preserve commercial ties with Great Britain. The French Revolution's radical phase, marked by the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793, further intensified these divisions and led to war between France and monarchical nations such as Great Britain and Spain.

The French Revolution's diplomacy of national sovereignty and its focus on European national interests represented a significant departure from traditional royal diplomacy. This new approach to diplomacy, viewed as a genuine science, contributed to shaping France's foreign relations and its role in the world during and after the revolutionary period.

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