Abstract
France is a country with global pretensions, although, for reasons linked to various historical tropisms and economic constraints, its international concerns seem circumscribed to an area comprising Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its presence throughout the world today - correlated by a planetary military deployment1 - attests to such an international vocation. It is certainly far less considerable than in the past when France constituted a genuine world empire (in 1939 it comprised 12.3 million km2 with a population of over 100 million). But residual as it is, this global presence is still geopolitically relevant. And considering the multipolar configuration of the world system at the end of this century, it serves as a significant power inducer.
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Notes
A. W. Murch, ‘Political integration: an alternative to independence in the French Antilles’, American Sociological Review, 33 (1968): 544–62.
Jacques Boyon, ‘Rapport fait au nom de la commission de la d6fense nationale et des forces armies sur le projet de loi (No. 1153) relatif h. la programmation militaire pour les anndes 1995-2000’, Documents Assemblee nationale, No. 1218, 10 May 1994, p. 53.
La Guadeloupe, la Martinique, le moment d’investir, Moniteur du commerce international, 865 (April 1989)
. Andr6 Teuli&res, Outre-mer frangais et defense de I’hexagone: une dissuasion complSmentaire pour demain (Paris: Association France-Outre- mer, 1987).
The politics of cocaine’, Crime, Law and Social Change;-16 (1) (1991), special issue; Ivelaw Griffith, The Quest for Security in the Caribbean (New York: E. Sharpe Publishers, 1993); A. Wallon and E. Morlin (eds) La Drogue, nouveau desordre mondial, rapport 1992–1993 (Paris: Hachette, 1993); Ronald Sanders, ‘Narcotics, corruption, and development in the Caribbean’, Caribbean Affairs, 2 (1) (1989): pp. 32–47.
This is clear in Haiti and Dominican Republic: James Ridgeway (ed.) Drugs: the Haitian Connection (Washington, DC: Azul Edition, 1994); M.A. Velasquez-Mainardi, Narcotrafico y lavado de ddlares en Republica Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Ed. Corripio, 1992).
On this issue, see Jean-Christophe Rufin, ‘Les nouvelles terres inconnues’, in Les nouvelles pathologies des etats dans les relations internationales, Pascal Boniface and Jacques Golliet (eds) (Paris: Dunod, 1993), pp. 105–21; Max G. Manwaring (ed.) Gray Area Phenomena: Confronting the New World Disorder (Oxford: Westview Press, 1993).
Livre blanc sur la defense 1994, op. cit., p. 93. India’s invasion of French territories in 1954 offered a precedent in this regard: see Gohin, op. cit.
Selwyn Ryan, ‘The Muslimeen grab for power: the Qaddafi connection’, Caribbean Affairs, 4 (April-June 1991): 69–80; also Kathleen M. Collihan and Constantine P. Dannopoulos, ‘Coup d’6tat attempt in Trinidad: its cause and failure’, Armed Forces and Society, 19 (3) (Spring 1993): pp. 435–45.
Yves Salkin,’Regard strategique sur les Guyanes’, Defense nationale (July 1989): 125–36.
Institut d’emission des departements d’outre-mer, Rapport annuel 1991, vol. 1 ‘Presentation generate’ (Paris, 1992), p. 55; also Herve Domenach, Michel Picouet et al., La Dimension migratoire des Antilles (Paris: Economica, 1992), 3rd part.
Sophie Bourgarel, ‘Migration sur le Maroni: le cas des refugids surinamiens en Guyane’, Cahiers d’Outre-mer, 41 (1988): 425–31; Dominique Anouilh, La France, la Guyane et la Guerilla (1986–1992): implications de la crise surinamienne (Toulouse: Universite de Toulouse II, 1995).
Not to mention domestic reactions, such as enhanced racial tensions: see Laenec Hurbon, ‘Racisme et sous-produit du racisme: immigres hai’tiens et dominicains en Guadeloupe’, Temps Modernes, 39 (1983): 1988–2003.
In a way, metropolitan local entities seem paradoxically in a better position in this regard. Regarding the relations between the state and its peripheries, see references in note 36, and Bernard Dolez, ‘Cooperation decentralisee et souverainete de l’Etat’, doctoral thesis (University of Lille, 1993).
J6r6me Lambert, ‘Avis presente au nom de la commission des lois constitutionnelles, de la legislation et de 1’administration generale de la republique sur le projet de loi de finances pour 1993’, Documents Assemblee nationale, No. 2949, 1st session, 1992–93, 1, ‘Departements et territoires d’outre-mer’, pp. 16–19.
Humberto Garcia Muniz and Jorge Rodriguez Beruff, ‘El debate estrat£gico en Estados Unidos y la revisi6n de la poli’tica hacia la America latina y el Caribe’, Caribbean Studies, 25 (3–4) (1992) and ‘US military policy toward the Caribbean in 1990s’, The Annals, 533 (May 1994): 112–24; Anthony Maingot, The US and the Caribbean, Challenge of an Asymmetrical Relationship (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1994).
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Martin, M.L. (1996). French Presence and Strategic Interests in the Caribbean. In: Beruff, J.R., Muñiz, H.G. (eds) Security Problems and Policies in the Post-Cold War Caribbean. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24493-5_3
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