The European call for more ‘strategic autonomy’ only gained traction outside France with the recent geopolitical unrest. While the then brand new French President Emmanuel Macron was still looked at strangely in 2017 when he argued for a strategically autonomous EU in a speech at the Paris Sorbonne University, it is now considered the way to secure the European position on the world stage.
French ‘strategic autonomy’: first derided, now embraced by Brussels
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Just as with our energy and food supply, the EU should be less dependent on others for its own security, is now the prevailing view in Brussels. And with that, an old French concept suddenly has the spirit of the times, says Eline Huisman, France correspondent for De Volkskrant, among others, in BNR’s Dossier Europe. ‘Old, because in his thinking about strategic autonomy, Macron goes back to what has been the core of the French defense strategy for decades.’
‘The ideal of strategic autonomy became fundamental for France as a military superpower’
Thanks to its own arms industry, France has been able to produce weapons for its own use for decades, Guillaume Lagane, university lecturer in international relations and defense issues, told Huisman. ‘The fact that France has strong domestic production gives the country a certain degree of autonomy.’ Lagane points to what he sees as the origins of the whole concept of strategic autonomy. ‘I think that the Suez crisis in 1956 in particular was a crucial moment in the history of France.’
Nationalize the Suez Canal
At the time, France and the United Kingdom made a big mistake when they thought they could stop Egypt from nationalizing the Suez Canal — a strategic shipping route between the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. “Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser decided to nationalize the canal, after which the British and French, together with Israel, secretly prepared a military operation to regain control of the Suez Canal,” says Eline Huisman.
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It turned out to be a disgrace: both the Soviet Union and the US strongly condemned the plans and Egypt retained control of the Suez Canal. Historians see the Suez crisis as the end of the French position as a global player. According to Lagane, that was the moment that France decided never to end up in a crisis in which it was dependent on the Americans. According to Huisman, it will be the guiding principle for the French defense strategy: ‘That is where the strategic autonomy has its origins and is now reflected in Europe.’
Nuclear deterrent
Julien Malizard, an expert on defense and economics at the Institut Des Hautes Studies Défense Nationale, identifies Charles de Gaulle as the president who introduced the concept of the strategy of autonomy in security and defense in 1958. With nuclear deterrence as a crucial component. It requires greater investments in defense than in other countries. ‘And in order not to be technologically dependent on other countries, France is developing an important defense industry of its own, across the entire military spectrum.’
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The principle of strategic autonomy based on own defense production and nuclear deterrence has never been discussed since 1958, says Malizard. ‘The ideal of strategic autonomy became fundamental to France as a military superpower. It has made the country what it is today: a nuclear power with a relatively large army. With military bases all over the world and a defense industry that is at home in all markets.’ Yet French support for Ukraine remains apparently limited for the time being.
