Franco-German Relations

The rapprochment between France and the Federal Republic of Germany five years after the end of World War II was the cornerstone of all subsequent Western European history. Their previous hostility was a basis for arms races and wars--their friendship, the foundation for continually widening European economic and now political community. The unexpected reunification of Germany in 1990 sent shock waves through the French political class. Friend explains the present French-German relationship, first investigating the recent past, then laying out the problems of the present and foreseeable future.

Historians of the Cold War, argues the author of this book, have too often overlooked the part that European nations played in shaping the post-World War II international system. In particular, he contends that France has been given short shrift.

France's political leaders have been deeply committed both to maintaining France's independence and to asserting its leadership role in Europe. The end of the Cold War, the demise of the "Europe of Yalta," as well as the unification of Germany, have forced France to rethink its European and international strategies. The purpose of this study is to analyze France's effort to redefine its role in the post-Cold War era and in an integrated Europe, and what that redefined role might mean to France, to Europe, and to the United States. In examining France's international role after the Cold War, Steven Philip Kramer seeks to answer the question, "does France still count?"

As France begins to confront the new challenges of the post-Cold War era, the time has come to examine how French security policy has evolved since Charles de Gaulle set it on an independent course in the 1960s. Philip Gordon shows that the Gaullist model, contrary to widely held beliefs, has lived on--but that its inherent inconsistencies have grown more acute with increasing European unification, the diminishing American military role in Europe, and related strains on French military budgets. The question today is whether the Gaullist legacy will enable a strong and confident France to play a full role in Europe's new security arrangements or whether France, because of its will to independence, is destined to play an isolated, national role. Gordon analyzes military doctrines, strategies, and budgets from the 1960s to the 1990s, and also the evolution of French policy from the early debates about NATO and the European Community to the Persian Gulf War. He reveals how and why Gaullist ideas have for so long influenced French security policy and examines possible new directions for France in an increasingly united but potentially unstable Europe.