As France begins to confront the new challenges of the post-Cold War era, the time has come to examine how French security policy has evolved since Charles de Gaulle set it on an independent course in the 1960s. Philip Gordon shows that the Gaullist model, contrary to widely held beliefs, has lived on--but that its inherent inconsistencies have grown more acute with increasing European unification, the diminishing American military role in Europe, and related strains on French military budgets. The question today...
As France begins to confront the new challenges of the post-Cold War era, the time has come to examine how French security policy has evolved since Charles de Gaulle set it on an independent course in the 1960s. Philip Gordon shows that the Gaullist model, contrary to widely held beliefs, has lived on--but that its inherent inconsistencies have grown more acute with increasing European unification, the diminishing American military role in Europe, and related strains on French military budgets. The question today is whether the Gaullist legacy will enable a strong and confident France to play a full role in Europe's new security arrangements or whether France, because of its will to independence, is destined to play an isolated, national role.Gordon analyzes military doctrines, strategies, and budgets from the 1960s to the 1990s, and also the evolution of French policy from the early debates about NATO and the European Community to the Persian Gulf War. He reveals how and why Gaullist ideas have for so long influenced French security policy and examines possible new directions for France in an increasingly united but potentially unstable Europe.
Pt. 1
The Gaullist Years
1
Ch. 1
Perspectives on de Gaulle
3
Why Start with de Gaulle?
3
De Gaulle and Change: The Provisory and the Permanent
6
De Gaulle and the Nation-State in Europe
9
De Gaulle's "Idea of France"
14
Independence and Grandeur as Goals and Means
17
Gaullist Ideas and Gaullist Policies
21
Ch. 2
The Missing Pillar: France's Role in the Defense of Europe in the 1950s and 1960s
23
The Missing Pillar during the Fourth Republic
24
The Missing Pillar during the Gaullist Years
29
Explaining the "Missing Pillar" under de Gaulle
31
France's Nuclear Force and Europe
39
The International Context and the French Contribution
46
Ch. 3
Manipulating Ambiguity: Military Doctrines under de Gaulle and Pompidou
53
Conventional Doctrine through the Mid-1960s
53
Early Nuclear Doctrines
57
The Direct Legacy: The Fourquet Doctrine
64
Pompidou's Initial Challenge
68
Codified Ambiguity: The White Paper on National Defense
70
French Military Doctrine in Retrospect
77
Pt. 2
Struggling to Adapt
79
Ch. 4
Giscard's Balancing Act, 1974-1981
81
The "Post-Gaullist" Period
81
Revising France's Military Doctrines
83
Reorganizing the Army, 1975-1977
89
Nuclear Cooperation with the United States
92
Opposition to Change and Its Lessons
93
Defense Policy and the Economic Constraint
100
Conclusions on the Giscardian Experience
104
Ch. 5
Mitterrand's Adaptations, 1981-1986
106
The Socialists' Turnaround and Its Explanations
106
Security Policy under the Socialists: Adapting to de Gaulle
112
Mitterrand's Atlantic Rapprochement: Adapting to NATO
118
The German Role: Adapting to Europe
124
Defense Policy and the Economic Constraint Revisited
134
The Socialists in Retrospect
138
Ch. 6
Tensions in the Consensus, 1986-1989
139
A Changing Military Context and Its Impact on France
140
Cohabitation and the French Defense Debate
144
The Debates of Cohabitation
146
Cohabitation in Retrospect
156
Putting off the Choices: May 1988-May 1989
158
Pt. 3
France in the New Europe
161
Ch. 7
The Gaullist Legacy Today: French Security Policy in the 1990s
163
A Look Back: Continuity Since de Gaulle
163
France and NATO in the 1990s
165
France and the European Security Identity
172
The Lessons of the Persian Gulf War: The View from Paris
178
Conclusions: Continuities amid Change
183
Ch. 8
Epilogue: The Gaullist Legacy and the Post-Cold War World
186
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