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What is it about the French? Or, at least French leadership. True, much of US leadership hasn\u2019t been terribly stellar over the past century, but there\u2019s something about the arrogance of French leaders that\u2019s remarkable.\n>>
\n>> In July 2017, just two months after assuming office as President of France, Emmanuel Macron canceled the traditional press conference on Bastille Day, his spokesman asserting that his \u201cthoughts were too complex for journalists to understand.\u201d
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\n>> Macron later went so far as to state that he intended to \u201crule like Jupiter [the chief god in the Roman pantheon], remote, dignified, weighing rare pronouncements carefully.\u201d
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\n>> One is reminded of de Gaulle\u2019s comment that: \u201cWhen I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.\u201d
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\n>> In case you missed it, on September 15th a new trilateral pact (AUKUS) was announced among Australia, the United Kingdom and the US; France is very upset.
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\n>> According to news reports out of Australia, some time in late 2019 or early 2020 representatives from the three governments (Australia, the UK, and the US) began negotiations for what became a trilateral security pact. Among other features of the pact, is a deal to assemble 8 nuclear submarines in Australia. All the details of what will be made by whom and where have not been released.
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\n>> The deal has caused quite a furor in France because several years ago Australia had inked a deal with France – for $90 billion Australian (about $65 billion US or 55 Billion Euros) – for 12 diesel submarines. Now, that deal is cancelled, and France is livid.
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\n>> But, is all the wailing real?
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\n>> To begin, there are two shipyards in the US that make nuclear submarines: Electric Boat in Groton Connecticut, and Newport News Naval Shipyard (NNNS) in Newport News Virginia; (England also has a nuclear capable yard: Barrow-in-Furness).
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\n>> For nearly a decade there was a French company – Areva – that, in partnership with US companies, had a facility at NNNS working on nuclear propulsion. That facility closed several years ago, and the company was restructured. But the French remain very much interested in nuclear power developments both at home, and abroad.
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\n>> The French also retain a competent and thorough intelligence community that looks out for French interests.
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\n>> Which raises a question: Is it possible, given French contacts with the US (and Australia), and in particular with US shipyards, that the French didn\u2019t know about these negotiations? Or is it possible they did know, and saw it as an opportunity to further French interests? And now that the deal is public, does it matter?
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\n>> For quite a few years there has been talk about an EU military, that is, a military force that would be apart from the NATO force. There is, in fact, already an EU military force, mainly a series of headquarters, that uses most of the same forces committed to NATO, but the point is that they make decisions separately from NATO, that is, separately from the US. But NATO remains the \u201cBig Dog.\u201d What if that changed?
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\n>> And who would really benefit from such a development?
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\n>> When, on 18 March 1966, De Gaulle announced that France was leaving the integrated military command structure of NATO, he did it for two reasons: reassert French sovereignty by getting all US forces off of French soil, and by asserting sole French command and control over French nuclear forces. There was a third, unspoken, reason as well, it gave de Gaulle an edge in parliamentary elections later that year.<\/p>\n