“Our false friend America”, or nostalgia for Gaullism

“Our false friend America”, or nostalgia for Gaullism


Obichkina E.O.,

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, obitchkina@mail.ru


elibrary_id: 398425 |

Article received: 2024.05.05 19:26. Accepted: 2024.05.22 19:30


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2024.04.13
EDN: WOKSVT


For citation:

Obichkina E.O. “Our false friend America”, or nostalgia for Gaullism. – Polis. Political Studies. 2024. No. 4. P. 180-191. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2024.04.13. EDN: WOKSVT



Abstract

This article was inspired by Mark Rousset’s work (Notre faux ami l’Amérique. Pour l’Alliance avec la Russie. Préface de Piotr Tolstoi. Edition Librinova, 2023) devoted to the opposition of American interests to the national interests of Europeans and the need for an alliance with Russia to preserve the sovereignty of European nations in the face of American hegemony. At the moment of the highest rallying of the EU and NATO around the United States to counter Russia, such an essay seems heretical. It is diametrically opposed to the direction of French policy in Europe and the policy of the European Union as a whole, as well as the information background of the leading media, but if we consider the author’s ideas in historical retrospect and in a modern social context, it would be a mistake to consider his book as the speech of an angry lone patriot. Fifteen years ago, M. Rousset published a book in defense of the idea of a sovereign Europe, which could become an independent center of power in the emerging world hierarchy. In fact, this is an idea that France was hatching after the end of the Cold War. F. Mitterrand and J. Chirac, following in line with the Gaullist tradition of French geopolitics and echoes of which were heard in the statements of the current president of France until February 2022. Its mainstay could be the EU under the leadership of a Franco-German pair, which together with Russia would form a European trio of conductors of continental interests in order to avoid subordination to US interests and not be hostages of the US-China rivalry. However, the format of the “European troika” (France – Germany – Russia) had no place in the new Western European architecture, based on a pair consisting of NATO and the EU, atlanticized after a large expansion. Thus, the development of the international situation in Europe went according to the worst of the scenarios predicted by the author. Meanwhile, despite the defeat in big politics, the ideas of the defenders of sovereignty have remained relevant both for business, which is painfully sensitive to American pressure, and for a wide but diverse range of voters who cast their votes to opposition political movements of the extreme right and extreme left, and not only in France. Their interests are focused on internal problems, and they see the main threat not as Russia, but in the loss of identity and sovereignty, and therefore yearn for the ”European” Europe of nation-states, which de Gaulle defended. For them, Russia is an abstract geopolitical entity, but not a hostile Other, but a positive example of countering the Anglo-Saxon global project aimed at vassalizing Europe.

Keywords
Rousset, France, sovereignty, Europe-power, vassalization of Europe, Russia, Gaullism, Atlanticism.


References

Bеnamou, G.M. (1997). Le dernier Mitterand. Paris: Plon.

Gomart, Th. (2019). L’Affolement du monde. Dix enjeux géopolitiques. Paris: Tallandier ESSAIS. Lacroix-Riz, A. (2023). Les origines du Plan Marshall: le mythe de “l’aide” américaine. Paris: Armand Colin, Malakoff.

Nardon, L., & Velliet, M. (2020). La guerre commerciale sino-américaine: quel bilan à l’issue de la présidence Trump? Paris: IFRI.

Pierucci, F. (2019). Le piège américain. L’otage de la plus grande déstabilisation économique témoigne. Edition JC Lattès.

Rousset, M. (2001). Les Euro-ricains. Préface d’Yvon Gattaz. Paris: Editions Godefroy de Bouillon.

Rousset, M. (2009). La nouvelle Europe. Paris-Berlin-Moscou. Paris: Godefroye de Bouillon.

Rousset, M. (2023). Notre faux ami l’Amérique. Pour l’Alliance avec la Russie. Préface de Piotr Tolstoi. Edition Librinova.

Вrzezinsky, Z. (2010). The Grand chessboard. American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives. (Russ. ed.: Вrzezinsky, Z. Velikaja shahmatnaja doska. Americanskoje prevoshodstvo i ego geostrategicheskie imperativy. Moscow: Mejdunarodnie otnocheniia).

Mackinder, H.J. (2021). Geographical pivot of history. (Russ. ed.: Mackinder, H.J. Geograficheskaya os’ istorii. Moscow: AST).

Obichkina, E. (2018). Franzia v poiskah vneshnepoliticheskih orientirov v postbipoliarnom mire [France in search of foreign policy guidelines in a post-bipolar word]. Мoscow: IE RAS. (In Russ.)

Roubinsky, Yu. (2004). Primety vremeni [Signs of times]. Vol. 1. Мoscow: MGIMO-Universitet. (In Russ.)

Content No. 4, 2024

See also:


Salmina A.A.,
Perception and Attitudes Toward Democracy in Russia and Europe. – Polis. Political Studies. 2019. No4

Chugrov S.V.,
Russia and Europe: Dialogue on Values in the Space of Civilization. – Polis. Political Studies. 2015. No4

Pastukhov V.B.,
From Statehood to the State: Europe and Russia. – Polis. Political Studies. 1994. No2

Salmin A.M.,
Russia, Europe, and the New World Order. – Polis. Political Studies. 1999. No2

Tzymbursky V.L.,
Europe - Russia: the Third Autumn of the System of Civilizations. – Polis. Political Studies. 1997. No2

 

   

Introducing an article



Polis. Political Studies
6 2011


Zagladin N.V., Zagladina H.T.
Russian education at the crossroads

 The article text
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991