Although France Has the Trappings of a Major Power, It Cannot Assert Its Claim to Leadership

With Trump and the Brexit, spaces seem to open up for the great Gaullist vision: France as the leading power of an independent European pole in a multipolar world order. But it's not that simple.

The threat felt in France today does not come from Russia, but from terrorism, which has its drivers in the southern Mediterranean, a region with which it is closely linked historically and politically. While Germany is anxiously looking to the east, not least because of the vulnerability of its eastern neighbourhood is particularly dependent on the protective power of the United States, France's concerns are directed toward radical Islamism to the south.