Pictures are an integral part of the process of conveying the state and character of French-German relations. Such pictures highlight not only justified criticisms but also prejudices and clichés. The use of these pictures has intensified since 2008 because the financial and EU crises heightened resentment between the two countries.

Citizenship is a major issue in public debates when it comes to immigration in France. Passionate talks illustrate the current disagreements on the meaning of value such as “laïcité”, “universalism”, “equality”, “community” and on the way these should apply in social and political life.

Are we returning to “The German Question”, which we thought had been dealt with at unification? Although “The German Question” has deep historical roots, its return is indicative of a European crisis: economic fractures, institutions in deadlock, relative withdrawal of France and the UK on serious Union debates. Only through increased European integration can we expect Germany to regain to a place which it can occupy comfortably.

In France, Europe basically expresses four objectives: peace, parity with Germany, economic development, and leveraging French power. But today, the feeling abounds that none of these objectives are really being achieved.

Although the United States is less active in Africa than France, their security policies on the continent often have shared objectives and are sometimes pursued jointly. While the urgency of humanitarian crises has been at the centre of foreign interventions for a long time, now it tends to give way to the terrorist threat. 

Born into the Cold War, the very notion of ‘reassurance’ was revived in the wake of the 2014 Ukraine crisis as NATO had to label the measures destined to reassert the lasting relevance of collective defense towards its member states.