Bastien Irondelle

France's return to NATO: the death knell for ESDP?

Abstract Our article focuses on the likely impact of Frances return to NATOs integrated military command on the future of the European security and defense policy (ESDP). First, we describe the triangular relationship between Frances defense, NATO and European defense policies that dominated the era of the Gaullist–Mitterrandist consensus (1958–95) and its gradual erosion under Jacques Chiracs tenure (1995–2007). Second, we explain the context in which President Sarkozy made the decision in 2007 to rejoin the Allied military command. Relying on interviews with French foreign and defense policy-makers, we address the extent to which ESDP considerations really played a role. Finally, we develop four scenarios for the future of European defense: (1) ESDP gets a new lease of life; (2) France becomes a normal player in a NATO-dominated Europe; (3) NATO and ESDP work out of a division of labor; and (4) France becomes the Trojan horse of European cooperation inside NATO. To develop each scenario, we rely on rationalist and constructivist mechanisms drawn from International Relations theory.

Not Only a Battleground: Parliamentary Oral Questions Concerning Defence Policies in Four Western Democracies

Oral questions are usually seen as a procedure designed for political conflict. Yet question time may serve other purposes depending on the institutional setting, the political context and the policy field. By comparing the use of oral questions on the defence issue in the national parliaments of four Western democracies, the paper identifies a specific characteristic of questioning in each lower house: political conflict in Germany, internal dissent in the United Kingdom, reward of policy expertise in Spain and local issues in France. Such diverse uses of questioning procedures impact differently on the quality of the accountability process.

European Foreign Policy: the End of French Europe?

Abstract After 9/11, the Iraq war and the French and Dutch rebuttal of the Constitutional Treaty in 2005, some have observed that EU member states have tended to de‐Europeanize or renationalize foreign policies. In such a context, does France see its foreign policy future within the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) or outside it? Despite the inherent contradictions of the traditional French model of European foreign policy (intergovernmentalism, Europe puissance, EU as a power multiplier), France’s commitment to a strong European foreign policy remains powerful. But the French allegiance to CFSP is less based on a political project for Europe and for its role in the world than motivated by necessity, as France is less and less able to act alone in the world. Thus, French policy vis‐à‐vis the EU in general and CFSP–European security and defence policy (ESDP) in particular has become increasingly pragmatic and flexible. This trend will most likely continue under President Sarkozy’s leadership.

Public support for European defence: Does strategic culture matter?

This article identifies previously ignored determinants of public support for the European Union’s security and defence ambitions. In contrast to public opinion vis-a-vis the EU in general, the literature on attitudes towards a putative European army or the existing Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) suggests that the explanatory power of sociodemographic and economic variables is weak, and focuses instead on national identity as the main determinant of one’s support.This article explores the possible impact of strategic culture, and argues that preferences vis-a-vis the EU’s security and defence ambitions are formed in part through pre-existing social representations of security.To test this proposition, ‘national’ strategic cultures are disaggregated and a typology is produced that contains four strategic postures: pacifism, traditionalism, humanitarianism and globalism. Applying regression analysis on individual-level Eurobarometer survey data, it is found that strategic postures help explain both the general level of support for CSDP and support for specific Petersberg tasks.