French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to unveil a series of proposals for rejoining NATO’s integrated military command structure at the Bucharest Summit on April 2-4. Sarkozy will hold talks Thursday in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, aimed at securing British support for the French proposal. Paris will reportedly offer an additional troop contribution for the NATO mission in Afghanistan which would include the deployment of elite paratroopers to the east of the country, allowing the United States to move more troops to the main theater of operations in the south. In return, Paris will seek British and American backing for an independent European Union defense structure.
Sarkozy first announced the possibility of a French rapprochement over NATO in an interview in September last year, when he made two demands according to the New York Times: “American acceptance of an independent European defense capability and a leading French role in NATO’s command structures.” He repeated the theme in his address to Congress in November, where he called on “the Alliance to evolve concurrently with the development and strengthening of a European defense.”
Sarkozy’s offer of an olive branch to the NATO alliance will be France’s second attempt to rejoin the organization’s command, following former president Jacques Chirac’s unsuccessful effort in 1997, when Paris was rebuffed by the Clinton administration. However, once again, the ransom being demanded by Paris for a return to the NATO fold is too high a price for the United States and Great Britain to pay.
Washington ought not be tempted to accept this offer and bargain away the future of the transatlantic alliance for the promise of a few hundred or perhaps a thousand more troops in Afghanistan. France’s relationship with NATO has always been complex and troubled, and her introduction into the organization’s command structure is highly unlikely to improve the effectiveness of NATO’s operations. Indeed, it would have the opposite effect, by creating a rival EU command structure among NATO member states, a move which could tear NATO in half and ultimately destroy it.
The full development of an independent European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) is a long-term policy goal of Paris, and will be the centerpiece of the French Presidency of the European Union, starting July 1, 2008. In terms of French strategic thinking, the NATO issue is an important bargaining tool for Paris to strengthen its own vision of a French-driven EU as a powerful world player in the political, economic, and military spheres.
Under the existing Berlin Plus arrangements (a package of agreements between NATO and the European Union), the NATO Alliance not only maintains the right of first refusal to conduct crisis management operations — if the EU wishes to use NATO resources, it may only act independently in an international crisis if NATO chooses not to — but all members have an effective veto by virtue of the fact that the EU may only draw on NATO assets if the whole alliance approves. If French ambitions for a separate defense identity are realized, the United States effectively loses its veto power. The ESDP would become a powerful autonomous force within the Alliance, with access to NATO’s resources and capabilities, as opposed to an instrument that should only be activated where NATO does not want to act as a whole. An autonomous EU defense identity within NATO could become the motor of the Alliance, representing a significant dilution of U.S. and British influence over decision-making.
Ironically, Paris sees London and not Washington as the main barrier to French reintegration into the upper echelons of NATO. Gordon Brown is known to be skeptical regarding the French proposal, and according to the Guardian, “French officials have expressed disappointment at the lukewarm reaction so far,” with a French diplomat quoted as saying “we had hoped for a more welcoming response from Britain.”
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