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Agents, Structures, and Ideas

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Contemporary French Security Policy in Africa

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the reader to the maze of foreign policy decision-making. In order to understand decision-making, both the formal function of public offices and the holders’ personal interpretation of their roles are examined. The chapter proceeds in two steps. First, it identifies the dynamics of foreign policy decision-making from a theoretical perspective. Second, it identifies the central decision units that were responsible for the military interventions in Mali and the Central African Republic. The author offers a microfoundational analysis of decision-making that takes into account both individual agency and collectively shared norms and ponders on the mutual interactions between these two dimensions of the same process. The chapter concludes by outlining the decision-making processes at work in times of crises.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The rational actor approach argues that a close analysis of actors’ ideas, perceptions, beliefs, and idiosyncrasies becomes irrelevant during crises. In extreme situations, it is not necessary to engage with personalities of individuals, since all actors share the same and easily deductible preferences. Wolfers (1959, 94) illustrates this claim with the metaphor of a burning house, which would drive all inhabitants―with the exception of some irrational deviationists―to the nearest exit. Leaving aside that even this example is debatable, the situation is different, if the house is not on fire but overheated. In this case, it is no longer a question of mere survival and decision-makers’ perception and judgment of the situation once again become salient. Very few events in world politics classify as “burning house situations.” Neither the Malian nor the Central African crises do classify as a “burning house” situation (at least not from the French perspective), leaving decision-makers with a wide array of options and a non-negligible degree of discretion.

  2. 2.

    For a discussion of the distinction between natural and social kinds, see Wendt (1999, 68–71). See also Searle (1995) for a distinction between social/institutional and brute facts.

  3. 3.

    For an early pronunciation of this argument and an excellent discussion of the role of images in international systems, see Boulding (1959).

  4. 4.

    Interview with personal advisor to the Foreign Minister, Paris, January 31, 2014.

  5. 5.

    Term used to designate both the person and the office (see Hermann 2001).

  6. 6.

    Since the constitutional reform in 2008, the government needs to inform Parliament within three days after having decided on a military operation. A debate can take place, but the decision is not due for parliamentary approval. Only if the operation exceeds the duration of four months, parliamentary approval is required (Constitution de la République française, art. 35).

  7. 7.

    The 1958 Constitution remains highly ambiguous on the precise competences it attributes to the president in the realm of defense policy. While it designates the president as the guarantor of national integrity (Constitution de la République française, art. 5), the commander-in-chief, and the only person to command France’s nuclear weapons (art. 15), it also puts the government in charge of the administration of the armed forces and makes the prime minister, not the president responsible for the national defense (art. 20, 22; see also Elgie 2013, 19–20).

  8. 8.

    Interview with a personal advisor to the foreign minister, Paris, January 31, 2014.

  9. 9.

    Pierre Lellouche, MP, interview by author, Paris, February 7, 2014.

  10. 10.

    Parliament’s role regarding the conduct of belligerent action includes the approval of military missions that exceed the duration of four months, the reflection, deliberation, and voting of the general organizing principles of national defense and France’s strategic orientations, and the annual voting of the defense budget. Parliament exercises its control function from the beginning of a military intervention by scrutinizing the government’s decisions by means of hearings. The regular hearings of the defense and the foreign ministers in front of parliamentary committees in addition to the weekly Questions au Gouvernement (questions to the government) are an indicator of how much support an ongoing military intervention receives.

  11. 11.

    Mitterrand–Chirac 1986–1988; Mitterrand–Balladur 1993–1995; Chirac–Jospin 1997–2002.

  12. 12.

    The principal-agent literature discusses at length the potential of conflicts of interest between “those who delegate authority (principals) and the agents to whom they delegate it” (Kiewiet and McCubbins 1991, 5).

  13. 13.

    Interview with vice chief of staff of the Army, Paris, February 18, 2014.

  14. 14.

    With Hélène Le Gal, President Hollande appointed not only the first woman to occupy this post but also a diplomat without a particular francophone African profile. The continuous existence of an advisory desk at the Élysée, dedicated to the African continent, which is the only desk at the Élysée with a regional portfolio, is suggestive of France’s prevailing special interest in that specific region (Baïetto 2012).

  15. 15.

    Interview with a personal advisor to the president, Paris, March 16, 2014.

  16. 16.

    Interview with a senior civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, Paris, July 18, 2013; Interview with civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, Paris, February 3, 2014. Some pundits of French foreign policy contest this argument (Interview with a French senator, Paris, December 5, 2013). In particular, when compared to the omnipotent role the cellule africaine had played in the past, especially under Jacques Foccart and later under René Journiac, Guy Penne, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, Michel Dupuch, or Michel de Bonnecorse, the office’s present role may seem that of a mere mediator and contact point for the concerned ministries in France, the different African countries, and the French president. For an introduction to the storied person of Jacques Foccart and the role of the cellule africaine, see (Foccart and Gaillard 1995; Bat 2012).

  17. 17.

    Interview with the former spokesperson of François Hollande, Paris, October 7, 2013.

  18. 18.

    Vincent Desportes, general in the French Army, interview by author, Paris, January 12, 2014.

  19. 19.

    Interview with senior civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, Paris, July 18, 2013.

  20. 20.

    Xavier Collignon, vice-director of the DAS, interview by author, Paris, August 6, 2013.

  21. 21.

    Colonel Michel Goya, interview by author, Paris, January 10, 2014.

  22. 22.

    Isabelle Lasserre, journalist at Le Monde, interview by author, Paris, August 23, 2013.

  23. 23.

    Director Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, interview by author, Paris, July 23, 2013; Vincent Desportes, general in the French Army, interview by author, Paris, January 12, 2014.

  24. 24.

    Interview with personal advisor to the minister of defense, Paris, September 16, 2013.

  25. 25.

    Interview with civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, Paris, February 5, 2014.

  26. 26.

    Interview with personal advisor to the president, Paris, March 16, 2014.

  27. 27.

    Xavier Collignon, vice-director of the DAS, interview by author, Paris, August 6, 2013. This long-term perspective of strategic thought is institutionalized in form of the Centre de Planification et Contrôle des Opérations (Centre for Operational Planning and Control, CPCO). The CPCO produces operational plans and options for all kinds of possible scenarios, which serve as technical basis for the following political decision-making processes.

  28. 28.

    Interview with personal advisor to the president, Paris, March 16, 2014.

  29. 29.

    Isabelle Lasserre, journalist at Le Monde, interview by author, Paris, August 23, 2013.

  30. 30.

    Interview with personal advisor to the minister of defense, Paris, September 16, 2013; interview with civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, Paris, February 5, 2014.

  31. 31.

    Interview with personal advisor to the foreign minister, Paris, January 31, 2014.

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    Benedikt Erforth

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Erforth, B. (2020). Agents, Structures, and Ideas. In: Contemporary French Security Policy in Africa. The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17581-8_3

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