FEATURED COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS

France Calls for Force if Chemical Arms Confirmed in Syria

New Atlanticist
Jul 16, 2025

Reading between the lines of the new France-UK nuclear entente

By
Léonie Allard

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Kier Starmer released a “truly historic” declaration on nuclear planning on July 10.

France
Nuclear Deterrence

France Calls for Force if Chemical Arms Confirmed in Syria

New Atlanticist
May 2, 2025

France’s foreign minister on Europe’s role in the ‘new era of multilateralism’

By
Daniel Hojnacki

Jean-Noël Barrot laid out his vision of European strategic autonomy and cautioned Washington against pulling back from the multilateral system it helped build.

Economy & Business
European Union

France Calls for Force if Chemical Arms Confirmed in Syria

Transcript
Apr 24, 2025

France’s François Villeroy de Galhau on a US recession: ‘Bad news for the US is bad news for all, including for Europe’

By
Atlantic Council

The governor of the Banque de France, speaking at the Atlantic Council, said that the European Central Bank would likely cut interest rates further this year.

Europe & Eurasia
European Union

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"A reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force"

NATOSource

Aug 22, 2013

France Calls for Force if Chemical Arms Confirmed in Syria

By AFP and Wall Street Journal

France is seeking a reaction with “force” if a massacre in Syria involving chemical weapons is confirmed, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday, although he ruled out the use of ground troops.

France International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Aug 19, 2013

Hollande Finds Confidence, Vision, and Voice—Now It’s the French People’s Turn

By Nicholas Dungan

Earlier today, President François Hollande provided what many had been waiting for since his inauguration a year ago: a confident vision of the future and a clear idea of France’s place in it. It would be easy, but erroneous, to underestimate how big a difference this change of discourse can make.

Economy & Business France
Coat of arms of Eurocorps

NATOSource

Aug 19, 2013

Europe: Strategic Drifter

By Jakub Grygiel, National Interest

The European Union is a strategic drifter, unclear about its world role, unable to articulate a purpose and divided in its perception of external threats.

Eastern Europe Europe & Eurasia

New Atlanticist

Jul 11, 2013

How France ‘Set the Standard’ for Crisis Intervention

By Julian Lindley-French

A very senior British general said of Operation Serval in Mali that France had “set the standard” for crisis military interventions. Praise indeed and not easily given. One can always tell when a crisis is being managed to effect as the press lose interest.

France Sahel

New Atlanticist

Jul 2, 2013

Snowden: Why France is Angry

By Julian Lindley-French

It was as predictable, subtle and French as a first tasting of a Chassagne Montrachet Premier Cru – full of hidden complexity and fascinating ‘notes’. French President Hollande’s condemnation of Edward Snowden-alleged American spying in Europe was dramatically shrill. “We cannot accept”, the President thundered, “…this kind of behaviour between allies and partners”, before going […]

Economy & Business France

Event Recap

Jun 4, 2013

Strategy Session on the French Defense White Paper

On June 4, the Atlantic Council hosted Brigadier General Bruno Caïtucoli, defense attaché at the Embassy of France in Washington, DC, for a strategy session on the French White Paper on Defense and National Security.

France

New Atlanticist

May 20, 2013

Hollande’s Europe

By Julian Lindley-French

“It is my responsibility as a leader of a founder member of the European Union…to pull Europe out of this torpor that has gripped it, and to reduce people’s disenchantment with it.  If Europe stays in the state it is in now, it could be the end of the project.”  Europe owes French President Francois Hollande a […]

European Union France

New Atlanticist

May 14, 2013

Hollande’s Survival Mode Endangers Survival

By Nicholas Dungan

From his 75 percent income tax to his 25 percent approval ratings, François Hollande, the French president who took office one year ago, has already been judged the hapless Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution or the feckless René Coty who presided over the demise of the Fourth Republic. But what has […]

European Union France

New Atlanticist

May 13, 2013

The Growing Franco-German Schism

By Frederick Kempe

 Occasionally a public opinion survey surfaces that signals a seismic event. That is the case with a new report from the Pew Research Center that measures the widening tremors of a political earthquake now shaking Europe. Although the report leads with evidence that  Europeans are increasingly losing faith in the European Union (which I wrote […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

May 8, 2013

France’s White Book: Both Good and the Bad for the US and NATO

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

France’s new White Book on defense and national security offers no radical thinking on the future posture and structure of France’s military and national security establishment, maintaining previous strategic ambitions and positions even in the face of a faltering economy. This is both good news and bad news for Washington and other major French allies. […]

Cybersecurity France
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Léonie Allard

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Gérard Araud

Distinguished Fellow

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English Europe & Eurasia

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Olivier-Rémy Bel

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Europe Center

Defense Industry Defense Policy

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Jason Davidson

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Transatlantic Security Initiative

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Jérémie Gallon

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