precisely through the assertion of its own national interests, to the
creation of a Europe strong enough to arbitrate the end of the Cold
War.

This study examines key parts of French global policy under the
Fifth Republic from 1958 to 1974. It covers the administrations of
President Charles de Gaulle ( 1958-1969) and the five years of his
successor, Georges Pompidou ( 1969-1974). Within the framework
of specific French strategic, economic, and diplomatic policy areas,
it reviews some of the principal proposals advanced and the steps
taken to revise international relations. From this perspective, France's
attempt to change the alignment patterns and the distribution of
power between and among states is viewed as an object of French
foreign policy; its concrete strategic, economic, and diplomatic poli-
cies are seen as means in the service of larger global aims. Conversely,
the discussion also treats France's global policy as a means of achiev-
ing its narrower national foreign policy goals.

This approach to French foreign policy is from the point of view
of France's bilateral relations with other states and international or-
ganizations as they are reflected in the decisions and actions of the
French government and leadership. Interstate and intergovernmental
relations are stressed as distinguished from transnational relations be-
tween persons, groups, or corporations. Relevant domestic constraints
on policy are noted, but there is no attempt to explore fully the
linkages between domestic and foreign policy as they bear on French
behavior abroad. Emphasis is on the limits posed by other states on
French behavior and on the political and ideological imperatives
which the governments of the Fifth Republic imposed on France by
articulating a global policy responsive to the particular needs of
France and of other states.

The specific policy areas that are discussed exemplify general tend-
encies in French foreign policy and behavior. I hope this study will
provide a useful framework of analysis for these and other facets of
French policy. It characterizes rather than exhausts what might be
said of French efforts to reconstruct relations between industrialized
states and between developed and underdeveloped nations -- that is,
the East-West and North-South axes on which international relations
turn. Whether these findings are applicable to other areas that can
only be touched upon here will depend on additional research. These

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