France, Germany, and the Western Alliance

A succinct analysis of Franco-German relations in matters of defense and foreign policy. The author, a British student of French and strategic affairs, gives a brief account of the historic reconciliation between the two countries after 1949 and argues that in the new post-Cold War era, French-German collaboration will have a harder time without the Soviet threat as a raison d'Ltre. Germans have a stronger interest in Eastern Europe; the French have an anxious concern with North Africa: their policies in the former Yugoslavia already diverged. The French have become uneasy about their newly unified neighbor, and still the Franco-German alliance within the NATO alliance is likely to remain fundamental to a Europe that has once again become more skeptical about American leadership.