The American foreign policy: the peripeteias of relations with the most ancient strategic partner France

Abstract

The peripeteias of relations of two powerful nuclear countries: the hyperpower USA and the European power France significantly define the world politics. The partnership between two states in the context of their influence on the world arena is studied, the shared values of two countries and their reactions to terrorist attacks is highlighted. Anti-Americanism in France and francophobia in the United States are also analyzed. The article proved that taking into account significant differences of power of the USA and France one can define their partnership as an asymmetric, situational strategic partnership. It is highlighted that the nuclear weapon and the status of the permanent member of the UN Security Council protect France from a purely paternalistic attitude of the USA, and France has enough resources to allow itself avoiding supporting some of the USA’s decisions in the international arena and even competing with hyperpower in certain economic and technological issues. The author emphasized that regarding global strategic issues France does not act contrary to the USA and thus it retains its status as an ally and asymmetric strategic partner of the USA. The USA being fully aware of their own resource advantages, sometimes are irritated by the lack of the support by France of their international actions. It is summarized that sometimes the participation of France, the oldest US ally in joint operations as in Kosovo in 1999 or in crisis regulations as in Ukraine in 2014-2016 is useful for the USA.

Keywords

• anti-americanism
• state
• nato
• usa
• strategic partnership
• france