Today's Security Challenges Cry Out for Its Return to Full NATO Participation (France

Saying Yes to France :Today's Security Challenges Cry Out for Its Return to Full NATO Participation
The Washington Post ^ | October 29, 2007 | Ronald D. Asmus

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated his willingness to bring France back into NATO. It is an offer the United States should not refuse. Earlier in my career, I was a hard-liner on France and NATO. In fact, when I stepped down from the State Department in 2000, the French ambassador to Washington was so relieved he toasted my departure at a European Union ambassadors' lunch because of my dogged pursuit of U.S. interests. (I considered it a back-handed compliment.)

But times change, and so should our thinking.

First, Sarkozy's opening to the United States and NATO is real and represents a critical shift in French thinking. He is the first French president in decades who likes America and does not seek to demonize for political purposes the U.S. capitalist system or our foreign policy. Since Charles de Gaulle, France has sought to maximize its influence in Europe by being the counterweight to America. Paris has always had, at least in theory, the option to maximize its influence by becoming a key interlocutor and broker of the terms of U.S.-European cooperation. This may be precisely what Sarkozy has in mind. He knows that the world is becoming more dangerous and that America and Europe need to face this century's problems together.

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