Hubert Védrine on France’s Atlantist ‘Temptation’: Excerpts from the Védrine Report

PARIS -- There has been much talk of late of impending "changes" in French foreign policy. New French President Nicolas Sarkozy's programmatic speech last month on foreign policy matters -- and especially his remarks on the "unacceptability" of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons -- first spurred such discussions. Then came the publication last week of former French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine's commissioned report to the French President on globalization and French foreign policy.

Védrine, a Socialist, served as Foreign Minister from 1997-2002 in the government of Lionel Jospin, in which capacity he famously qualified American counter-terrorism efforts in the aftermath of 9/11 as "simplistic." At roughly the same time, in early 2002, he again courted controversy by dismissing concerns about a series of anti-Semitic attacks in France with the words: "One shouldn't necessarily be surprised that young French people from immigrant families feel compassion for the Palestinians and get agitated when they see what is happening."

English-language coverage of the Védrine's report to Nicolas Sarkozy highlighted his recommendation that French foreign policy adopt a more "modest" tone: a seeming "concession" that some commentators interpreted as further evidence of a potential warming of Franco-American relations. The following passage, in particular, has been widely quoted: