Introduction

Abstract

Contemporaxry French foreign policy is a complex and fascinating subject - intimately associated with President Charles de Gaulle and his successors - of a defeated global power regaining self-respect, military power and diplomatic weight in world affairs after liberation from the national désastre of Nazi invasion and occupation from June 1940 to June 1944 (Grosser 1989). France is one of just a handful of EU states (together with Britain and perhaps Germany) with the diplomatic, economic and military wherewithal to play an appreciable role in world affairs without the “cover” of the EU. Yet French foreign policy is also closely linked with European construction, building European foreign policy and acting via Europe.