Part V - International Relations and Diplomacy
Introduction
This chapter constitutes a major blind spot in traditional sovereignist thinking. It addresses what we are exiting - the EU, NATO, supranational constraints - without ever sufficiently treating what we are building in their place. Yet sovereignty is not defined solely in the negative, by what one refuses, but positively, by the vision of the world one carries and by the relationships one freely chooses to maintain.
Sovereign France is not an inward-looking France. It is a France that freely decides its commitments, that speaks to everyone without submitting to anyone, that defends its interests without dressing them in ideological pretexts, and that assumes its positions without adapting them to external pressures. This is a France Gaullist in its essence: active non-alignment as a permanent posture, the credibility of the given word as a strategic asset, and the national interest as the sole compass.
This chapter develops successively the general diplomatic doctrine that governs all French positions, then the most structuring bilateral and multilateral relations - post-exit Europe, NATO, the United States, Russia, China, Africa - before addressing cultural diplomacy, sovereign trade policy and the French posture vis-à-vis international organizations.
General diplomatic doctrine
The diplomacy of a sovereign France cannot be a collection of ad hoc positions adjusted according to crises and external pressures. It must rest on a clear, assumed and coherent doctrine: a set of principles that govern each decision, each commitment, each refusal, and that allow our partners as well as our adversaries to know what to expect.
The first principle is simple and radical: French diplomacy has only one decision criterion - the national interest. Not the interest of an alliance, not the interest of an exported ideology, not the interest of a transnational ruling class. The interest of France and the French people, defined sovereignly, without delegation or external constraint.
This principle is not a selfish withdrawal: it is the condition of existence of any honest diplomacy. A State that does not defend its own interests defends in reality no one, and becomes the plaything of States that do know what they want. Gaullist France had understood this: one can be a reliable and loyal partner while remaining fully independent in one's choices.
Active non-alignment
Sovereign France adopts a posture of active non-alignment. It inscribes itself in no bloc, submits to no strategic tutelage, delegates to no alliance the definition of its enemies or its friends. It freely chooses its commitments, case by case, according to its interests and its values: without automatism or permanent allegiance.
This non-alignment is not neutrality. France is not Switzerland. It is a nuclear power, permanent member of the UN Security Council, with global interests and responsibilities. It engages, takes positions, intervenes: but according to its own criteria, not those of an alliance that imposes its priorities upon it.
Law as a lever, not an absolute constraint
France respects international law: not out of submission to a superior authority, but because well-constructed international law serves the interests of a sovereign medium-sized state facing great powers. However, no sovereign popular decision can be blocked by an international convention. If a treaty contradicts the will of the French people expressed by referendum, it is the treaty that yields: by renegotiation, by suspension or by exit.
The given word as a strategic asset
In a world of power relations, credibility is a rare and precious asset. Sovereign France honors its commitments: not out of naivety, but because a State whose word is worth nothing loses all capacity for influence. This reliability builds over the long term a reputation as a serious partner, which is the foundation of any lasting diplomatic influence.
Diplomacy as an extension of sovereignty
Foreign policy is not a domain separate from domestic policy: it is its natural extension. A France that has reconquered its economic, monetary, military and cultural sovereignty possesses a credible diplomacy. Every dependency eliminated is an adverse pressure point removed. Every national capacity reconstituted is one more argument in a negotiation.
The king as guarantor of diplomatic continuity
In the proposed institutional model, the king plays a central role in foreign policy matters. He represents France on the international stage with a continuity that elective democracies cannot offer: a head of state whose mandate does not depend on electoral cycles, who can build trust relationships over the long term, and whose word commits the State beyond successive governments.
What this doctrine excludes
It excludes ideological wars: France has no vocation to export its form of government nor to impose its values by force. It excludes automatic commitments: no alliance can obligate France to enter into war without an explicit sovereign decision. It excludes strategic dependency: no partnership can create a dependency such that France loses its freedom of decision.