(Published in ABC on September 18, 2007)

Throughout its history, France has tilted between realism and nationalism. Gaullism represents a balance between both tendencies that each president interprets in a personal way. Former French President Jacques Chirac preferred the nationalist blindness and dreamed that France was in charge of an autonomous Europe able to control the United States – with the support of Russia and China. On the contrary, the most classic realism carries weight with President Nicolas Sarkozy, the one coming from Machiavelli’s theory and Talleyrand’s praxis. As the French Socialist Hubert Védrine admitted to ABC’s Juan Pedro Quiñonero; “If Europe aspires to play some role as a power, the Europeans will have to negotiate the future alliance’s contours with the Americans.” That is exactly what Sarkozy is trying to do.

What has been left behind is Chirac’s provincial and envious anti-Americanism that only led to expose his own limitations. Sarkozy is a French nationalist who seeks to defend France’s own interest and, mainly, its international influence. In order to succeed, he is trying to regain Washington’s trust, to then enter into a strategic dialog. It is the only way to be influential in Washington; it is the only way to defend national interests in a global environment. It is the same road that former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar took and that today’s French president did not hesitate to praise.

The Iran crisis shows the new French diplomacy in action. Like in the days of Talleyrand, Paris speaks about war in order to give diplomacy a chance. One of the reasons for the failures reaped to date with Iran is that, quite rightly, the ayatollahs have not been taking Europe’s threats seriously. They knew that Chirac and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder would do nothing in the end, just like Russia and China. Sarkozy is trying to break the stagnation by using a harsher rhetoric, approving strong economic sanctions and making more credible the use of force. It does not seem that Washington is preparing an immediate offensive, but just making it likely, it is possible, but not a sure thing, that Iran would decide to negotiate and back off.

©2007 Translated by Miryam Lindberg