Comment by BLKNSLVR
10 days ago
France has some history in being disappointed by the US, so it doesn't really surprise me that France is beating the independence drum the loudest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9qhDGv300&t=150s.
(the entire video is interesting and informative, I've skipped it to the France-US specific part, up to about 11:02 where Australia is introduced as the US sycophant it is)
Whether it's logical or not, offences past, even those thought forgotten, are easily recalled when under similar pressures.
> Whether it's logical or not
From an American NatSec perspective, French strategic autonomy is viewed as a positive, as can be seen with Elbridge Colby's work (and similar work by Mastro and Doshi), and a lot of the initiatives led by the Biden admin, as this would allow burden sharing because the US is no longer in a position to manage a two continent war. France does our dirty work in the Sahel and can help in the Indo-Pac (as was seen with the US, France, and India jointly armtwisting the UK into ceding Diego Garcia to Marutius)
In Australia's case (and to the US's benefit), alignment with France makes sense and has been something that has come up in Australian NatSec for years.
New Caledonia is barely 800 miles off the coast of Australia and NZ, and both New Caledonia and French Polynesia have faced pressure due to China, especially after the recent violence in New Caledonia was linked to Azeri [5] disinfo networks on TikTok, along with decades of covert ops by China in New Caledonia [6][7]. France has also been an active defense partner with India and Indonesia - both of whom are increasingly cornerstones of Australian defense.
By every single standard, having an active "Indo-Pac" France is a net benefit for America+ strategy and Taiwan.
That said, French NatSec "strategic autonomy" does not have anything to do with French industry's alignment with marketing a "European first" tech story.
France has similar issues to the US with power politics (as can be seen with France, US, SK, and Israel sharing a similar CPI score), and the biggest booster and beneficiary for "European Tech" is Xavier Niel [0] (France's Mark Cuban or Elon Musk), who is on a first-name basis with Macron [1][2] and whose Father-in-Law (Bernard Arnault) has personally played a significant role in French power politics for years [3][4]. Arnault is also the reason why every country negotiating with the EU ALWAYS tariffs congac and champagne - Arnault's LVMH owns Hennessy and all the other congac producers, and the majority of champagne producers.
End of the day, this is just another inter-elite conflict between vested business interests like any other, but couched with the flag of nationalism.
Nothing wrong with that, but this is why you don't see alignment amongst EU member states - as each state is supporting their own vested business interests amidst a trade war. For example, there's a reason all of us American tech investors end up working with the same handful of politically aligned law firms in Czechia or ending up in the same IT Parks in Eastern Europe.
[0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-02-12/xavier...
[1] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2024/12/22/emmanu...
[2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-22/french-mi...
[3] - https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/insight-macro...
[4] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/08/08/bernard...
[5] - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/russia-azerbaijan-exploit-...
[6] - https://www.aspi.org.au/report/when-china-knocks-door-new-ca...
[7] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2024/05/16/why-and-...
> From an American NatSec perspective, French strategic autonomy is viewed as a positive
Sometimes. And then, the outcome of that autonomy is that France makes a decision that doesn't please the US, and the US goes ape.
Why is Diego Garcia to Mauritius good for the USA?
It's easier for the US to manage the relationship with Marutius instead of with the UK [0] while buying favor from India and France [1].
It also aligns with Mastro, Doshi, and Colby's doctrine around the US retrenching in the Indo-Pac and the UK concentrating on the European continent [2] as the US increasingly cannot guarantee boots on the ground in Europe and Asia at the same time.
With the UK in the Indo-Pac, British supply chains would be stretched with marginal benefit for the US in an Asian theatre, but the same resources spent on BIOT could be better spent on British possessions in Cyprus, bases in the Middle East, and the North Atlantic.
[0] - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/decolonise-die...
[1] - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/uk-mauritius-chagos-deal-r...
[2] - https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2025/03/24/its-time-to-re...