French Policy Towards Russia A Balancing Act
Traditionally, France has pursued a balancing act between Russia and the West. With a more assertive Russia under Putin, such an approach has become more challenging for France to pursue. In order to capture these changes and see how recent French policy practices have influenced relations with Russia, we will examine four cases: first, the French approach to the reunification of Eastern and Western Europe; second, the French role in the Russo Georgian crisis (2008) third, French Russia relations in connection with the crises in Ukraine (2013 and finally in Syria (2011 The aim is not to give a comprehensive description of the French role in these conflicts, but to use them as illustrations to show how French policy practices continue to be shaped by status seeking.