Overview
- Provides new insights into France’s foreign and defence policy, the country’s political aspirations in Africa, and its impact on European external action
- Considers the actors’ subjective perceptions and motivations as the key to understanding France’s actions
- Constitutes an anthropology of decision-making, telling the story of those politicians, civil servants, and military leaders that are the makers of France’s military actions
Part of the book series: The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy (SPIRP)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
“Erforth makes a notable contribution to our understanding of foreign policy decisionmaking. He convincingly demonstrates that pre-defined conceptions of national interest cannot explain French interventions in Mali and the Central African Republic. They were the result of competition among actors with different mental maps and belief systems who exploited as best they could the process by which decisions are reached. In the end the Hollande administration saved ‘strangers’ to uphold its self-image.” (Richard Ned Lebow, FBA, Professor of International Political Theory, King's College London, UK)
“Despite repeated assurances that France would not intervene, that the days of France acting as the 'gendarme of Africa' were over, President Hollande launched two major military interventions in Africa in 2013, the first in Mali and the second in the Central African Republic. Erforth's analysis of the institutional setting within which these operations were launched, combined with adetailed exploration of the mindsets of those politicians, civil servants, and military leaders who are the makers of France’s military actions in Africa, throws new light on the decision-making processes that led to their launch. He also shows how the dominant narrative of global terrorism, together with a discourse about the countries' proximity of Europe, became powerful drivers of interventionism. As such, Erforth's book makes an important and innovative contribution not only to the policy-making process that led to the launch of these two operations, but more broadly to our understanding of recent developments in French African policy.” (Tony Chafer, Professor of French and African Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK)
“Erforth spins a fascinating tale of Francois Hollande’s interventions in Mali and CAR, showing how a strategic narrative emerged through concern for such disparate principles as legitimacy, responsibility, guilt, compassion, security, prestige, honor, memory, analogies, and self-image. In doing so, he not only adds to our understandings of these particular interventions, but shows how simultaneous attention to both process and ideation can aid theoretical development in Foreign Policy Analysis.” (Valerie M. Hudson, Professor and George H. W. Bush Chair, Department of International Affairs, Texas A&M University, USA)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Contemporary French Security Policy in Africa
Book Subtitle: On Ideas and Wars
Authors: Benedikt Erforth
Series Title: The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17581-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-17580-1Published: 07 August 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-17583-2Published: 14 August 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-17581-8Published: 25 July 2019
Series ISSN: 2945-607X
Series E-ISSN: 2945-6088
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 218
Number of Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations
Topics: International Security Studies, French Politics, African Politics, Military and Defence Studies