France in East Asia: the Europeanisation of French Foreign Policy

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the interaction of French national policy with collective European foreign policy in one important part of the world — the Extrême Orient (‘Far East’ or East Asia). It argues that in at least two areas of European Union (EU) policy in East Asia — political/security relations and human rights — French policy has converged significantly with EU norms to an extent unimaginable under the traditional Gaullist understanding of French foreign policy. Through a dynamic and iterative process in which French and European foreign policy objectives, procedures and actions co-evolve, a negotiated and convergent policy towards East Asia has developed. The case studies are political relations with Japan, and human rights policy towards China. The period in question is 1985 to 2005, so covering a decade of each of the Mitterrand and Chirac presidencies.KeywordsEuropean UnionMember StateForeign PolicyEuropean Union Member StateEuropean ParliamentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.