A New Balance For France

By Bruce Crumley

French presiden Nicolas Sarkozy has made it clear he's determined to re-establish France as both a force in international affairs and a valued friend of the U.S. Inevitably, those objectives will sometimes be in conflict. In his first major address on foreign policy, for example, Sarkozy rejected the notion that Iran should be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb, but he also denounced the strategy, favored by some Washington hawks, of launching preventive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. Instead, he urged renewing efforts to negotiate Tehran's renunciation of its nuclear program as "the only one that allows us to escape from a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran." Pointing to the U.S.'s adventure in Iraq, Sarkozy noted that "unilateral use of force leads to failure," adding, "history proved France right" in opposing the invasion. And he lamented Bush Administration environmental policies, saying they indicated that the U.S. "is not demonstrating the leadership it claims in other areas."

Plenty of criticism of the U.S. there. On the other hand, the famous lunch that George W. Bush stood Sarkozy in Kennebunkport, Maine, this summer seems to have been worth it. Sarkozy pledged 150 new French troops for Afghanistan and softened his opposition to Turkey's entry into the European Union, a membership the U.S. favors. And he promised active French diplomacy in Iraq and Lebanon while pledging that France would help prevent the emergence of an Islamist ministate in the Gaza Strip. No U.S. President should ever expect his French counterpart to agree with everything he says, but the old days of constant enmity between Washington and Paris seem to be over.