Nicolai Sarkosy has proposed a massive restructuring of the French military. He would cut about 1/5 of the military’s manpower, tie the military much more tightly into a pan-European framework, close African bases, and rejoin the NATO integrated military command.

This is a very big deal, and I think that I agree, at least partially, with Robert Fox’s analysis, that a large part of this is about creating a more European framework, which would reduce US influence. (See also here)

This will, however, create a firestorm. The independence of the French military command from the US has been a centerpiece of the center-right Gaullists in France, the center-left Socialists always being more friendly to the US, so he is moving against his base, and the generals are flipping out, having published an anonymous essay in Le Figaro under the pseudonym of Surcourf, “attacked the new defence policy as amateurish, incoherent and full of gimmicks.”

Alain Juppé objected strenuously too, noting that, “Gaullism is not dead, at least in the minds of some people.”