Current development and prospects for the future: French security policy in a changing world.

Abstract

This thesis provides an analysis of the effects of recent historical events on the future of French security policy. The end of the Cold War division of Europe, the rebirth of Germany, the growing pressures for major defense cuts, the calls for France to review its nuclear doctrine, abandon its independent policies and rejoin NATO's integrated military structure, and finally, the lessons of the recent Gulf War, are issues that threaten to divide France in a way that has not occurred in several decades. The fundamental question for the decade of the 1990s is how to, or perhaps whether to, preserve the legacy of national independence and grandeur handed down by former President Charles de Gaulle. The thesis concludes that the Gaullist myth of grandeur and independence can no longer be sustained. French security must now be achieved by strengthening ties with NATO, and building a stronger West European defense posture centered around close Franco-German relations.