French Policy Research Articles

The French policy in the Republic of Armenia and Transcaucasia in 1920

Ֆրանսիայի վարչապետեր ու արտաքին գործոց նախարարներ Ալեքսանդր Միլյերանի և Ժորժ Լեյգի՝ Կովկասում Գերագույն հանձնակատարներին հասցեագրած 1920 թ. փետրվարի 12-ի, սեպտեմբերի 20-ի ու նոյեմբերի 4-ի հրահանգները Անդրկովկասում և Հայաստանում նրանց վարած քաղաքականության նպատակների ու խնդիրների մասին էին: 1920 թ. հունվարի 19-ին Դաշնակիցների կողմից Հայաստանի Հանրապետության փաստացի ճանաչումից հետո, Ֆրանսիան դիվանագիտական աշխատանք ծավալեց այստեղ։ Այդ աշխատանքը հիմնականում ուղղված էր առևտրի զարգացման, ռազմական մասնակի օգնության և որոշ զինատեսակների վաճառքի հարցերի, բոլշևիզմին ու քեմալա-խորհրդային համագործակցությանը դիմակայման, ֆրանսիական դպրոցների բացման ու Երևանի հայկական համալսարանի հետ փարիզյան հավատարմագրման հիմնահարցերին։ Инструкции премьер-министров и министров иностранных дел Франции Александра Мильерана и Жоржа Лейга для Верховных комиссаров на Кавказе от 12 февраля, 20 сентября и 4 ноября 1920 г. излагают цели и задачи политики, осуществлявшейся ими в Закавказье и Армении. После признания Союзниками Республики Армения де факто 19 января 1920 г. Франция развернула здесь дипломатическую работу. В список поручений входили вопросы развития торговли, частичной военной помощи и продажи ряда боеприпасов, проблемы противодействия большевизму и кемало-советскому сотрудничеству, открытие на месте французских школ и парижская аккредтация Ереванского армянского университета.

Jules Develle and the Paknam Incident of 1893

This contribution analyses the role of the French Foreign Minister Jules Develle with regard to the Franco-Siamese Crisis of 1893. The main body of the text addresses the extent to which Jules Develle directed French foreign policy during the Siamese Crisis of 1893. The paper assumes that although Develle officially held the power, his decisionmaking in the Siamese crisis was substantially influenced by other actors. The purpose of this paper is to identify who these actors were and the extent to which they were able to persuade the Foreign Minister to adopt their views or aims with respect to the Siam question.

The unusual French policy mix towards labour market inequalities

AbstractThis short paper presents an overview of the French policy mix towards labour market inequalities, consisting of a high minimum wage together with targeted payroll tax cuts around the minimum wage. It reviews the recent literature documenting the impact of that policy mix on employment and wage inequality. The main takeaways are that pre‐tax wage inequality has been increasing in France rather like it has in the UK and the US, while net wage inequality has decreased and then remained stable. The employment experience for the middle age group is also very close in France to the one in the UK and the US, while it differs markedly at young and older ages. The paper offers two more general thoughts on how to make progress in comparing policy options. First, most studies tend to give too much weight to tax and benefit reforms in being able to reduce inequality as they disregard incidence mechanisms, and fail to incorporate properly longer‐term effects of other policies on pre‐tax inequality. Second, the design of effective policy should always incorporate simplicity and salience. Failure to do so is likely to lead to little expected impact of such policies.

2012’ DEN İTIBAREN TÜRK DIŞ POLİTİKASINDA FRANSIZ ETKİSİ

Türkiye and France have had good relations since 1921. But interests of Türkiye and France do not mostly align and does even conflict in many cases since 2012. Even that France is at the very center of many problematic issues that Türkiye has to deal with. The two parties are on the opposite sides of each of many foreign policy issues -namely relations in the EU framework, the events of 1915, Mediterranean, Syrian question, possession of influence in Africa and the positions in the Caucasians- and Türkiye has to cope with French foreign policy to achieve its aims because France as a great power can not be disregarded easily for its capability to affect the course of events. The competition in foreign policy between two countries can be interpreted in terms of status quoism and revisionism. In some policy areas France is a status quo state while Türkiye is a revisionist and in some other areas, the roles are exchanged. This study aims to reveal the positions of two sides in the selected policy areas and display the challenging impact of France in Turkish Foreign Policy by using case study approach.

2022 FRANSA CUMHURBAŞKANLIĞI SEÇİMİ: DIŞ POLİTİKA ANALİZİ ÜZERİNE BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Assessments over the results of April 2022 Presidential Election in France will guide the scholars of foreign policy analysis on the future of internal and external policies of France and the European Union (EU). Within this framework, the aim of the paper is to identify the foreign policy approaches of the presidential candidates and the political parties they have represented in France. The paper adopts a diverse approach from traditional foreign policy approaches which take internal and external factors separately as units of analysis in foreign policy-making processes. Contrary to the traditional perspective, the authors focused on the interaction of internal and external factors, because it is argued in the paper that this interaction creates mutual impacts on agents and shapes foreign policy-making procedures. Methodologically the paper elaborates the interaction through an analysis on the discourses of seven presidential candidates and programs of the political parties they have represented. It is concluded in the paper that the interaction between internal and external factors in French foreign policy has currently concentrated on the themes such as migration, security, economy, climate change, Islam, NATO membership and the future of the EU. The article tries to contribute to the foreign policy analysis literature through a comprehensive analysis on the combination of internal and external factors and to illuminate the probable reflections of presidential election process in France.

카멜 다우드의 『뫼르소, 살인사건』

This study examines the novel Meursault Investigation by Algerian author Kamel Daoud, focusing on the language and identity of multicultural subjects. Meursault Investigation reinterprets Albert Camus' classic French novel “The Stranger” from the perspective of an unknown Algerian man called “Arab” who was killed by the main character Meursault. The novel deals with the tools of colonialism, identity and oppression in Algeria during the French occupation. Daoud argues that French, imposed on colonial Algerians, has become a tool of oppression, and that Algerians must regain their language in order to claim their cultural and ethnic identity. It is also a strong criticism of French colonialism and its continued influence on Algeria, and raises important questions about language and identity related to other post- colonial societies as well as Algeria.
 Algeria's historical background, which had been under long colonial rule, also had a profound influence on literature, resulting in a triple structure of the literary expression language of Arabic, French, and Berber. Under French colonial rule, writers had no choice of language due to the implementation of French language assimilation policies. French was a forced language and a language of oppression. So why did Kamel Daoud choose French, the language of the enemy, to write his work in 2014, 70 years after Kamel Daoud's Stranger was published? Daoud has two reasons for choosing French, the language of the enemy, as an expression tool for literary works. First, it is to restore the name of ‘Arab’ (‘Moussa’) that was not even given a name under colonial rule. This means the restoration of national identity. Second, after his brother's death, he had to represent the mother's voice, who did not possess the ruler's language, and his eyes were always separated from the mother's delusion and protected himself. This is reminiscent of Algeria, which remains under French influence, and means separation and independence from it. For Dowd, French, the language of the colonial state, is the language of recovery, the language of independence, the language of creation and order, and the language of subversion that summons past situations and events.
 In Daoud's work, the unknown “Arab” and “Harun” are multicultural subjects of the times. Multiculturalism has be- come a downgraded expression of our society for strangers and migrants. Rather than accepting diversity that is distinct from mainstream Koreans, we evaluate them from the perspective of discrimination and exclusion. Why should they be called “multicultural” that excludes personal identity, including their own ethnicity, historicality, and cultural diversity? Since the situation of “Arabians” and “Moussa” in Kamel Daoud's work resembles the existence of multicultural subjects coexisting in our time, we would like to examine their language and identity, diagnose the present of multicultural sub- jects, and predict the future.

European Defence Planning: Concorde, Franco-British Politico-Military Relations and the Cold War, 1956–68

Cold War tensions between the superpowers marked the years 1956 to 1966, where the United States, Britain and France prioritised European defence against Soviet aggression. Despite being envisaged for civil aviation purposes, the Concorde aircraft was the Franco-British alternative to US proposals concerning the introduction of a supersonic bomber within the Inter-Allied Nuclear Force (IANF) to protect against Soviet attack during the Cold War technological race. This offers a unique case study for the examination of Franco-British bi-lateral partnership in the context of European defence. This article will concentrate on three main themes. The first investigates how Concorde was considered as a viable component for the IANF. Subsequently, the loci of US, British and French policy decisions will be explored with regards to constructing supersonic aircrafts. Lastly, the article considers how foreign policies influenced the shift from a military-use Concorde to a more commercial option. The historiography on Concorde focuses on its commercial impact, and how it affected the Franco-British partnership. Considering Concorde from the defence perspective allows us to analyse the divisions between the US and French grand design ideas – the IANF and Europe puissance – and how they provoked further friction in the Franco-British military relationship.

Adaptation and Validation of a French Version of the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) Scale.

Over the past decades, vaccination has proven to be largely beneficial to global health. Despite vaccine efficacy, the French population has been recently affected by more anti-vaccination attitudes and vaccine refusal, and it is therefore necessary to validate tools to study this health issue. The Vaccination Attitudes Examination scale (VAX) is a 12-item questionnaire targeting adults that assesses general attitudes towards vaccination. The aims of the study were to translate and adapt the original English version of the scale into French and to test the psychometric properties of the scale in a French-population-based sample of adults. We included 450 French speaking adults that completed the French VAX and other questionnaires to assess convergent and divergent validities. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the French version of the VAX replicated the factorial structure of the original scale. Moreover, it demonstrated high internal consistency, good convergent and divergent validities, and excellent temporal stability. Furthermore, scores on the scale differentiated vaccinees from non-vaccinee respondents. Results on the scale provide us with insight into factors involved in vaccine hesitancy in France, therefore allowing French authorities and policy makers to address these specific concerns and improve vaccine acceptance rates in this country.

The Impact of Frances Abandonment of Gaullism on Its National Defense Policy

France has long regarded Gaullism as its national policy, and it has a strong independent color in politics, military and economy. In the early 2000s, French President Nicolas Sarkozy abandoned the Gaullist policy. A few years later, President Macron has shown signs of a return to Gaullism with wobbly attitude. This paper will analyze the impact of France's abandonment of de Gaullism on its national defense policy at the beginning of the 21st century from the perspective of changes in France's domestic and world situations, and discuss the international impact of this policy change. Studying this issue is conducive to making a certain degree of prediction and judgment on France's recent strategic layout of China and Russia in the context of the current international situation. This paper will use the literature survey method to find information on French policy changes, and use the data collection method to count the French military spending in the past few decades and visualize it for phased analysis of its defense policy. In addition, the conclusion part of this paper creatively links the change of French defense policy with world multi-polarization, and analyzes its impact on world multi-polarization and domestic military industry. The changes in the defense policy of France, an important European power, during a critical period in its history can also provide some constructive inspiration for China.

Defense Diplomacy: The role of the French military bases in the African continent

This research seeks to study the role of military bases in activating defense diplomacy, with a focus on studying the case of France in the African continent, which relied on its military bases as a tool to implement its foreign policy. The research explains the concept of defense diplomacy and its relationship to military bases as an effective tool to strengthening bilateral relations between the state's parties. The research focuses on studying the effectiveness of military bases as a tool for activating French defense diplomacy, and studying the goals that French foreign policy seeks to achieve through its intervention or presence in the African continent. In addition to the geopolitical reasons that prompted France to move towards the African continent and plant its military bases. In order to complete this study and achieve its objectives, it adopts the historical approach and the descriptive analytical approach to search documents and studies related to the interpretation of French political behavior in the African continent. The study concludes that France is keen to protect its interests and achieve its external goals by employing various tools, including defensive diplomacy represented in its military bases in the lands of other countries. It also concludes that the nature of the historical stage that France went through and the exploitation of its bases and military presence in implementing its higher interests at the expense of the African people led to the failure of French foreign policy in African countries

Substitution policies as a categorization process. Making biological alternatives a solution for the French national pesticide reduction plan

This article focuses on the emergence and implementation of a specific policy option in a national plan aiming to reduce pesticide consumption: the substitution of biological substances for chemicals. I argue that substitution is a singular method of handling the removal of pesticides and analyze the political consequences of this approach. Empirically, this work is based on a three-year qualitative investigation (2015–2018) into the French policy plan for pesticide use reduction (Ecophyto). Drawing on the literature on categories and classifications, I show that making substitution a viable policy option relies primarily on categorization processes and on the establishment of clear distinctions. By shedding light on the specific type of administrative and technical intervention substitution as a policy option requires, the aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the political dimension of transitions.

The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World

The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World

Du sang et des larmes par Mohamed Condé

Reviewed by: Du sang et des larmes par Mohamed Condé Deborah Gaensbauer CondÉ, Mohamed. Du sang et des larmes. L'Harmattan, 2022. ISBN 978-2-14-027691-0. Pp. 162. This highly political story of a young boy, Sima, who survives acute childhood leukemia to become a contested leader of a Guinean opposition party, reflects the complexity of the author's syncretic Muslim and Malinke background and his broad involvement as an educator, journalist, and government official in Guinea's turbulent politics. Condé's revised edition of his first published novel augments the meticulous cultural, political, and topographical details that contextualize a very broad spectrum of events and relationships, further enhancing its distinct pedagogical value. The first of the novel's three sections, focalized principally through the perceptions of the seven-year-old Sima's father, Madu, depicts with moving attunement to parental anguish the crucial role of tradition and community in Guinean society. Vacillating between revolt and resignation and ambivalent recourse to spiritualism and herbal remedies as well as mainstream medical practices, Madu struggles for roughly a year to obtain a visa permitting Sima's hospitalization in Paris. Emphasis on the obstacles to Madu's quest posed by bureaucracy in Conakry and distrustful French immigration policies serves to introduce the numerous analyses and critiques of clandestine migration that figure as a primary binding theme in the novel. Intensifying critiques of post-independence Guinea in the second and third sections increasingly inflect the story with a didactic political emphasis. Recovered from leukemia in the second section, thanks to extraordinary familial devotion and combined interventions of traditional African healers and French oncologists, Sima becomes immersed in a community of Guinean expatriates in Paris. Condé relays their dissident conversations at length, mobilizing what is a recurrent and sometimes artistically artificial device to incorporate analyses and background material that would otherwise fall outside the immediate development of the narrative. In the most significant change made to the 2022 edition, Condé eliminates this kind of dramatic tension-breaking elaboration to powerful effect at the end of the novel. Sima, having somewhat naively risked accepting the post of Guinean prime minister, is assassinated just as he believes he is about to succeed in imposing democratic reforms. "La soif du pouvoir de l'homme est plus cruelle que le cancer" (159). This reaction from a witness concludes both editions but with significantly different contextualization. In the first edition, a moralizing commentary on Guinean politics prefaces the remark, clearly distinguishing corrupt government officials from the visionary Sima. In the revised version, the comment is not elaborated. Couched in a fraught ambiguity, it becomes interpretable as a warning generalizable to all political ambitions. The novel's multiple exhortations to young Guineans to resist migration and draw strength from what Condé represents as a uniquely African sense of community are thus complicated by a stark acknowledgement of risks inherent in [End Page 228] fighting for life-sustaining conditions in present-day Guinea. (Between the two versions, Condé was abruptly dismissed from his position as Secretary General of the Ministry of Information and Communication.) Written from a perspective as critical of contemporary Guinea as it is of Western cultural and economic hegemony, Du sang et des larmes is a politically courageous and disturbing portrayal of the fragility of democracy. [End Page 229] Deborah Gaensbauer Regis University (CO), emerita Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French

Cost of exome analysis in patients with intellectual disability: a micro-costing study in a French setting

BackgroundWith the development of next generation sequencing technologies in France, exome sequencing (ES) has recently emerged as an opportunity to improve the diagnosis rate of patients presenting an intellectual disability (ID). To help French policy makers determine an adequate tariff for ES, we aimed to assess the unit cost per ES diagnostic test for ID from the preparation of the pre-analytical step until the report writing step and to identify its main cost drivers.MethodsA micro-costing bottom-up approach was conducted for the year 2018 in a French setting as part of the DISSEQ study, a cost-effectiveness study funded by the Ministry of Health and performed in collaboration with the GAD (Génétique des Anomalies du Développement), a genetic team from the Dijon University Hospital, and a public sequencing platform, the Centre National de Recherche en Génomique Humaine (CNRGH). The analysis was conducted from the point of view of these two ES stakeholders. All of the resources (labor, equipment, disposables and reagents, reusable material) required to analyze blood samples were identified, collected and valued. Several sensitivity analyses were performed.ResultsThe unit nominal cost per ES diagnostic test for ID was estimated to be €2,019.39. Labor represented 50.7% of the total cost. The analytical step (from the preparation of libraries to the analysis of sequences) represented 88% of the total cost. Sensitivity analyses suggested that a simultaneous price decrease of 20% for the capture kit and 50% for the sequencing support kit led to an estimation of €1,769 per ES diagnostic test for ID.ConclusionThis is the first estimation of ES cost to be done in the French setting of ID diagnosis. The estimation is especially influenced by the price of equipment kits, but more generally by the organization of the centers involved in the different steps of the analysis and the time period in which the study was conducted. This information can now be used to define an adequate tariff and assess the efficiency of ES.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03287206 on September 19, 2017.

Discrimination in French and German Refugee Policy

The origin of the refugee problem has been one of the reasons that have troubled the development of the world and European governments. This paper will mainly discuss the inevitable discrimination factors of the French and German governments when they adopt refugee policies in line with their national conditions to deal with the crisis. Both France and Germany belong to the European continent and have similar historical, cultural and geographical environment. They have made significant contributions in coping with the refugee crisis, shouldered the responsibilities of major countries, and tried to avoid the occurrence of discrimination in the process of policy adjustment. Comparing the policy adjustment of the two countries in this respect is conducive to absorbing valuable experience, which is of great reference and educational significance. This paper uses the method of comparative analysis to explore the gradual improvement trend of policy adjustment in the two countries in response to the emergence of refugee discrimination. In conclusion, French and Germany governments not only promulgate discriminatory policies, unaware of the discrimination embedded In them, but also intentionally impose them to restrict refugee and asylum-seekers. Therefore, this paper calls for more nondiscriminatory policies that meet both the interests of refugees and non-refugee people and promote integration of refugees.

French Defense Policy: “The Copernican Revolution” or Business as Usual?

The article examines the main trends in French defense policy at the beginning of Emmanuel Macron’s second presidential term. Throughout 2022 he made a number of statements announcing the «Copernican revolution» in defense including the transition to a war economy. However, the scale and pace of these changes are not as tremendous as it could seem at first glance. In particular, one of the basics of French defense doctrine is strengthening solidarity within the Western camp, the perception of European defense integration as an integral part of NATO. Some increase in defense budget is planned, which, nevertheless, will take place according to a long-planned schedule and not in such massive volumes as in Germany. Paris expects to maintain its presence in various regions of the world: for example, in Africa, where a new strategy will be developed after the end of the operation «Barkhane», and in Eastern Europe due to a relocation of French units and weapons there against the background of the conflict in Ukraine. The author concludes that French defense policy is experiencing the adaptation rather than a real revolution, keeping the continuity in all major aspects. In terms of Russia-France relations, it is a negative trend, since the Fifth Republic couples its policy with the membership in the collective West to an even greater extent than before, which further narrows the room for dialogue.

The Central Asian Direction of French Foreign Policy (1992-2022)

From the moment of the collapse of the USSR to the present days France showed interest in building relations with the countries of Central Asia in a wide range of areas of interaction. France was one of the first European states to recognize the independence of the new republics. The article is aimed to expand knowledge about French policy in Central Asia and the factors that determine the interest of Paris in the Eurasian region. In the context of the transformation of the world order and global geopolitical tensions France's capabilities are narrowing which encourages Paris to pursue a proactive foreign policy on the Central Asian track. At the same time the place of France's ideological and value rhetoric in its foreign policy in the Central Asian countries is gradually occupied by economic reasonability. France's interests in the region are focused on energy resources and Afghan issues. France's efforts are aimed at reducing the dependence of Central Asian countries on Russia and China. It is concluded that France is strengthening the economic dimension of its foreign policy in Central Asia with an emphasis on expanding cooperation with the two leading countries of the region - Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The “State Interest” and Humanitarian Diplomacy of Oliver Cromwell

The 16th–first half of the 17th century was a vital period for the emergence of international law, sovereignty, and the modern international system. European sovereigns also started considering at that time what today would be termed humanitarian issues in foreign policy. They relied in this mostly on the contemporary theological thought and the nascent “Law of Nations,” which fostered a discourse opposing the extremes of government (tyranny). The article analyzes one of the most vivid examples of such humanitarian foreign policy – foreign intervention by the Lord Protector of the English Republic, Oliver Cromwell, in the Duchy of Savoy in 1655 to protect the Waldensian Protestants, who suffered persecution there. Contrary to the modern historiography, the article argues that Cromwell did not abandon all other state considerations in questioning the conclusion of the Anglo-French alliance against Spain to stop the repression against the Waldensians. Cromwell’s humanitarian policy was carried out in line with Realpolitik. Aware of the complicated domestic political situation in France and of the goals of French foreign policy, he was sure that Prime Minister Cardinal Mazarin was unlikely to give up the alliance with London in response to the London’s support of the Protestant subjects of the Duke of Savoy. Cromwellian Foreign Policy in SavoyPiedmont demonstrates one of the most significant cases of implementing the humanitarian principles in international relations. At the same time, Oliver Cromwell did not infringe upon the interests of his own country. On the contrary, despite the financial costs of maintaining special embassies and a fleet in the Mediterranean and creating the Waldensian Relief Fund, the support of the persecuted in Piedmont demonstrated the strength and authority of the English state.

The dilemma of France's relations with Africa in the 21st century: the relationship between discourse and practice

The object of the study is the foreign policy of the French Republic. The subject of the study is the African vector of France's foreign policy in the 21st century during the presidencies of N. Sarkozy, F. Hollande and the current head of state E. Macron. The purpose of the study is to identify the reasons why France faced difficulties in the African direction of its foreign policy in the 21st century. The author analyses in detail the declarative and practical components of French policy towards Africa in the period under study. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of French military intervention in Africa between 2007 and 2023. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the study makes a comparative analysis of the discursive and practical dimensions of French policy towards Africa between 2007 and 2023 in order to identify possible reasons for the failure of France's policy course towards Africa in the 21st century. The study concludes that France, which has a long history of colonisation of Africa, still does not consider Africa as an equal partner, while the African dimension of French foreign policy is characterised by a contradiction between its declarative and practical components, as the declared principle of equality as the basis of Franco-African relations actually gives way to the traditional policy of spheres of influence and France's desire to maintain its position on the African continent.

Senegalese Stagecraft: Decolonizing Theater-Making in Francophone Africa by Brian Valente-Quinn

Senegalese Stagecraft: Decolonizing Theater-Making in Francophone Africa by Brian Valente-Quinn