Between 1947 and 1997 –that is fifty years–, France’s search for a new balance between Europe and the United States has been more or less in vain. It was necessary to wait for a warming of relations between Paris and London, at the same time as the war in Bosnia, and the Saint-Malo declaration, which seemed to announce a revolution in transatlantic relations, for this French ambition to come about. But if Paris and London were agreed on the principle of balance, there were not at all in accord over its content or putting in place. And the advent of the Bush administration and September 11 have overturned the structures and concepts of the Alliance. It is in this context that France, while reinforcing its military capacities, is opposed to the new U.S. doctrine of pre-emptive war and is making use of its status as member of the major multilateral organisations to counterbalance, sometimes with success, the U.S.. But France will once more need, to succeed in this mission to rebalance the European Union and the United States, the support of Great Britain.

Jolyon Howorth is Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics at the University of Bath, and Associate Research Fellow at Ifri.