The New Geopolitical Order in Europe: French insights

While France has, throughout the decades, solidly relied on Franco-German cooperation and considered it paramount to its European strategy, the French also have their very own, nation-based geostrategic vision of Europe. Strategic autonomy, a concept that has been at the core of President Macron’s EU policy since his 2017 Sorbonne speech, is not only a policy goal that aims to make Europe a geopolitical player, but also a contemporary appearance of France’s wish to re-calibrate the balance of power that tilted towards Germany after 1990 and 2004. Sensing the emergence of China as a great power, and thus the menace of a new cold war due to the emergence of two powerful blocks, the French hoped that strategic autonomy might give more room for maneuver within the Atlantic block to the continent. Tactically, Emmanuel Macron counted on Russia to be a partner in this endeavor, as Russia has similar strategic interests vis-à-vis China. The war in Ukraine turned everything upside down. Both France and Germany had to rethink their approaches to Russia and Vladimir Putin, and their economies had to adapt to the new realities. What is more, France had to witness the growth of Eastern European and thus German influence in European geopolitics. As the geopolitical center of gravity shifts towards the East, and Germany’s policies, on the surface, seem to be much more responsive to the Eastern European political sentiment, France also has to react to the resurgence of a visibly-not-so-brain-dead NATO in Europe. The paper aims to analyze the issues raised above: how does the French see current European geopolitics, and what are their responses to the events unfolding?