Foreign policy in France

Just the other day I was having a conversation about the fact that the presidential elections in France are surprisingly devoid of foreign policy (not including immigration), compared to the US. People here vote for the president according to the social and economic policy platforms, with little interest in Europe or beyond. The candidates do mention foreign policy issues from time to time, but not much in relation to the significance it has in the job posting. Presidents in France stand nearly alone when it comes to foreign policy, thanks to the Ve république.

Interesting article today in the IHT on the way foreign policy works in France.

A few comments:
1) on US-French cooperation on terrorism, the latest news this week revealed that French intelligence had obtained information regarding plans for the events that occured on September 11, which they shared with the CIA :

"Dès janvier 2001, la direction d'Al-Qaida se montre néanmoins transparente aux yeux – et aux oreilles – des espions français. Les rédacteurs détaillent même les désaccords entre terroristes sur les modalités pratiques du détournement envisagé. Jamais ils ne doutent de leur intention. Provisoirement, les djihadistes privilégient la capture d'un avion entre Francfort et les Etats-Unis. Ils établissent une liste de sept compagnies possibles. Deux seront finalement choisies par les pirates du 11-Septembre : American Airlines et United Airlines (voir fac-similé). Dans son introduction, l'auteur de la note annonce : "Selon les services ouzbeks de renseignement, le projet d'un détournement d'avion semble avoir été discuté en début d'année 2000 lors d'une réunion à Kaboul entre des représentants de l'organisation d'Oussama Ben Laden…

Comme toutes les informations évoquant des risques contre des intérêts américains, la note a été transmise à la CIA par le service des relations extérieures de la DGSE, responsable des coopérations entre alliés (renommé depuis service des liaisons)."

2) I think that Prof. Moravcsik unfairly evaluates Ségolène Royal's ability with foreign policy. Although she has might (arguably) have less "direct" experience in foreign policy, she made it a point in the early days of her presidential campaign to go to various countries (not without some controversy though). Sarkozy's first choice was the UK, not excatly a political minefield like Royal's choices of China, Lebanon and Senegal. She also bothered to write a letter to French voters who live abroad, although hers is dated 9 days after Sarkozy's letter.

3) Royal's biggest "foreign policy" gaffe is not mentioned in the article. She stated sometime last week that she would refuse to shake George Bush's hand as if nothing had ever happened, as if we didn't disagree on tactical and strategic issues. Silly, but mostly it was said to point out that Sarkozy had done just that.

4) An interesting addition to this article would have been an evaluation of the French opinion abroad. Le Monde provided a good analysis several weeks ago.