France between Autonomy and Influence?

Falk Ostermann

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France between Autonomy and Influence?

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• Publié par: yrixujaw
• Nombre de lectures: 242
• Langue: English

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Falk Ostermann Knochenhauerstrasse 16 37574 Einbeck / GERMANY

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Outline of a Doctoral Thesis: France between Autonomy and Influence? Discourse and Change in Foreign Policy Identity since the 2000s

Table of Contents 1 Abstract 2 Current and Existing Research: 2.1 Identities and Discourse: Foreign Policy Research and Constructivism 2.2AutonomyandInfluenceas Norms of French Foreign Policy Identity 2.3 The Continuity of French Foreign Policy since the End of the Cold War 2.4 Adaptations under Sarkozy – a Shift in Discourses of Identity? 3 Research Question and Working Plan 3.1 Research Question 3.2 Thematic Periodisation 3.3 Methodic Access 3.4 Working Agenda  Bibliography

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1 Abstract This qualitative study based on constructivist theory shall analyse French discourse on foreign 1 policy identity and its change since the year 2000. The conditions for foreign politics in Europe and the world have changed fundamentally for France since the end of the Cold War and anew in the early 2000s, caused by events such as 9/11, the Afghan or Iraq War (war on terrorism). However, we can wonder how little French foreign, security and defence policies really changed in face of a manifest loss of influence on world affairs, that it was trying to cover with strong rhetoric. Thegrande nation did not adapt significantly its position or action. Scholars just state a growing role of Europeanisation in French strategic thinking.  Nevertheless, the new French president Nicolas Sarkozy leaves a mark that something has become different. The cleardétenteof the French relations to the USA, openly demonstrated by the reintegration into NATO's military command structures, changed a cornerstone of the Fifth Republic's foreign policy. Both the erratic Africa- and Mediterranean-related policies and the maintenance of the French nuclear doctrine give unclear impressions of continuity and change that can no longer be thoroughly explained by the norms ofautonomy andinfluence (influence by autonomy), leading French politics for decades. We therefore cannot definitely say what has led to the break-up of the formerly stable foreign policy identity. I assume that discourse and its constitutive ideas about national foreign policy identity can explain the French resistance to policy adaptations. Under the impression of a steady Europeanisation of Frenchaction extérieure,this doctoral thesis will thus analyse the French discourse, as well as the spread between discourse and political action, on behalf of case studies chosen later on in the fields of the transatlantic relationship (NATO, Franco-American relations), the French African policies, Mediterranean initiatives and also nuclear politics. Can these cases give evidence about the adaptation or abolishment of the old leading norms ofautonomyandinfluencethat have led French foreign politics so far? Which social and/or political discourses have changed, which elements of identity have been activated, newly created or abandoned? Is there a gap between discourse and action? And finally: How does discourse conceptualise and influence French foreign policy action in regional and global security institutions, such as EU, NATO or the UN, serving as a medium for French policies?

1 For reasons of legibility in this paper,foreign policyserves as an overall notion summarising foreign, security and defence policies. At this point, I briefly define national political identity as the policy options both imaginableandfeasible in a specific political culture (cf. Christadler 2005: 232; Risse 1999: 39, 45; Stahl 2006: 40, 53). F ALK O STERMANN – Outline of a Doctoral Thesis:France between Autonomy and Influence?1