La politique du dehors avec les raisons du - European University ...

een accustomed to the cajolery of the French state, and the expected privilege
that goes with it.” 49
This new strategic blueprint shared several features with the
longstanding strategic thought of the Front National. One analyst summarized
the FN view: “Muslim fundamentalism in North Africa and the Middle East is
seen as a new strategic threat—missile launchers along the southern
Mediterranean coast could reach France, and proto-nuclear power Iran and
illegal arms trading from the ex-Soviet Republics could supply weaponry to
these countries.” 50 Such strategic interests overrode domestic discontent with
growing Muslim communities, though “securitizing” them was the one way that
fears could have foreign policy resonance.
Strategic thinking was the purview of the foreign policy establishment.
The dominant group in Sarkozy’s presidency was what Hubert Védrine, former
socialist foreign affairs minister, dubbed occidentalo-atlantiste. Until Sarkozy’s
election, the term “Occidental” was prohibited from use in official reports. It
was a watershed, then, that in his first major speech on foreign policy in
August 2007, Sarkozy invoked the term seven times, including to warn about a
conflict with the Occident’s other, Islam. In the “White Book on Defense and
National Security” published in Sarkozy’s first year as president, Occident was
used 18 times, though it was not defined. 51
Apart from closer ties with Washington, the second main axis of
Occidentalist policy involves changed relations with the Muslim world. To
some, Sarkozy embarked on reversing the policies of his Fifth Republic
18