Part V - International Relations and Diplomacy
Global cultural and linguistic diplomacy
The power of a state is not measured solely by its military and economic capacities. It is also measured by its capacity to project its culture, its language and its ideas beyond its borders. France has practiced this cultural diplomacy for centuries before the concept of soft power existed.
French in international organizations
French is one of the two working languages of the UN. This position is today threatened by a progressive drift toward all-English in actual practice. France draws a clear red line: every French representative speaks French in international forums, without exception. It conditions its effective and financial participation in organizations that genuinely respect multilingualism.
Francophonie beyond sub-Saharan Africa
Québec is a case in its own right: a francophone nation in North America fighting for its linguistic survival. The Franco-Québécois relationship deserves to be deepened well beyond official visits.
The Maghreb is a particular francophone space where French coexists with Arabic in a complex historical tension: a subtle cultural diplomacy valorizes this bilingualism as an asset. Lebanon benefits from cultural, educational and humanitarian support without political interference. Haiti constitutes a particular responsibility. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos retain francophone networks to be maintained in a strategic region.
The French cultural network
The Institut français and the Alliances françaises constitute the densest cultural network in the world: approximately 1,000 Alliances françaises in 133 countries. Sovereign France reinvests massively in this network; not to make it a propaganda tool, but to make it an authentic vector of French culture in all its diversity.
External broadcasting
France 24 and RFI merged constitute the primary vector of French sovereign influence internationally. TV5 Monde, whose governance is renegotiated to be proportional to the French contribution, ensures the cultural and linguistic reach of francophonie in the broad sense. These two complementary tools form the French media presence in the world. One carries the voice of France, the other carries the voice of the language.
Cinema, literature and gastronomy
France maintains and strengthens its policies of support for creation: not out of narrow cultural nationalism, but because global cultural diversity is a common good that France has an interest in defending against the uniformization carried by American digital platforms.
The French language as a common good
France is not the owner of the French language: it is its guardian. French belongs to all those who speak it. This posture implies a humility: accepting that African, Québécois or Caribbean francophones enrich the language rather than corrupt it.