Last week French President Emmanuel Macron told Britain’s Economist magazine that NATO is brain dead. Macron has for some time advocated a stronger European military effort, a softer approach to Russia, and has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for his apparent wavering over NATO and his leadership (or lack thereof) regarding Turkey and Ukraine.
Macron’s foreign policy views are, to some extent, extensions of the foreign policy carried out by Charles de Gaulle, who served a 10-year term as president of France from 1959 to 1969. De Gaulle was determined to replace the United States as leader of western Europe — an impossible ambition — by in effect declaring that France would develop its own nuclear option and withdrawing France from the NATO military commission. Under his leadership France opposed many U.S. policies and attempted to rival the United States in seeking influence in Third-World countries.
Macron shows no outward sign of emulating de Gaulle, but his effort to denigrate NATO and cozy up to Russia do indicate that he is trying to carve out a separate path for France in the matter of European defence.
It did not take long for other European leaders, especially Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to come to NATO’s defence. Morawiecki accused Macron of irresponsibility and challenged Macron by declaring: “I think President Macron’s doubts … can make other allies wonder if perhaps it is France that has concerns about sticking to it. I hope that we can still count on France fulfilling its obligations.” Poland is one of the few NATO countries that spends two per cent of its GDP on defence — a NATO guideline that France (and Canada) have not lived up to.
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