France’s Need to Be Different: Macron Policy Includes “Balancing Power”
France’s Need to Be Different: Macron Policy Includes “Balancing Power”

Author(s): Łukasz Maślanka
Subject(s): Politics, International relations/trade, Security and defense, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: France; foreign policy; Macron; NATO; EU;
Summary/Abstract: President Emmanuel Macron’s foreign policy, including in particular aid to Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific strategy, flows from an identical diagnosis with key NATO and EU allies of the international situation and threats. However, France’s actions are accompanied by the head of state’s rhetoric indicating the need to guard against unconditionally following U.S. policy and seeking a role for France and the EU as an independent actor and a “balancing power”. These statements, although partly conditioned by domestic policy needs, undermine France’s credibility and evoke associations with the concept of multipolarity and spheres of influence promoted by authoritarian powers.

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