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France moving towards agreement on NATO missile defence system

During the recent Lisbon Summit NATO’s member states — including France — agreed to a new Strategic Concept that included a missile defence system. …… France no longer blocked NATO’s use of new defensive weapons….

France’s Silent Strategic Revolution, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Rabah Ghezali, 10 Dec 10, France has always maintained that the possession of nuclear weapons first and foremost provides a deterrent to aggressive acts against its interests. However, it retains the policy option of using nuclear weapons in a further first strike capacity.

The French strategic doctrine has always been and remains one of crushing retaliation, in contrast to the US and UK strategy of allowing for more flexible responses such as a gradual, “pre-strategic” use of nuclear weapons.

In the light of this policy divide, the negative French reaction to the 1999 US National Missile Defence Act was entirely consistent . Paris considered anti-missile defence unnecessary and destabilizing. Since the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the doctrine of Mutually Assured destruction remained the foundations of French strategic thinking, missile defence appeared to jeopardize the status quo and risk starting a new arms race with Russia.

Even more fundamentally, however, Paris feared that missile defense would undermine its nuclear posture. The French position was clear. Nuclear capabilities, it insisted, must remain the sole strategic system protecting the country. ……

During the recent Lisbon Summit NATO’s member states — including France — agreed to a new Strategic Concept that included a missile defence system. President Sarkozy’s approval constituted a rupture in France’s long-standing opposition to strategic missile defence. Recognizing options other than “all or nothing,” France no longer blocked NATO’s use of new defensive weapons….

Rabah Ghezali: France’s Silent Strategic Revolution

December 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, weapons and war