France’s Africa policy has undergone significant change in recent years, particularly in its military aspects. In practical terms troop numbers have fallen; bases have closed; and financial and military resources have been reallocated or redirected. Politically, the will for forceful, unilateral French action in Africa seems largely to have dissipated. However, this does not mean that France seeks to disengage from the African continent. Rather, multilateral initiatives for maintaining influence are sought, including the possibility of diplomatic and potentially military action alongside the United Kingdom. However, it remains to be seen whether these policy reorientations will suffice to fulfil Prime Minister Lionel Jospin’s dictum: ‘not to do less but to do better’.
Military ties have constituted a cornerstone of Franco-African relations since at least the time of decolonisation. In recent years, however, the foundations of France's military relations with the African continent have been significantly revised, and political rhetoric in Paris has increasingly sought to place the changes made within the prism of globalisation. This article will begin by showing that a globalising world has, indeed, provided a permissive context for alterations in French military policy in Africa. It will, however, go on to argue that the extent to which those alterations have been driven by concerns over globalisation, or comprise an adequate response to challenges posed by global pressures, is very much open to question. It will suggest rather that globalisation has provided little more than a latter-day legitimation of changes effected by Paris for reasons which have more to do with self-interest than with specifically African requirements in the face of globalisation.
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