European Security After 911 by Matthew Sussex & Peter Shearman

Author:Matthew Sussex & Peter Shearman [Sussex, Matthew & Shearman, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Security (National & International), International Relations, General
ISBN: 9781351938389
Google: OEUrDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 35638265
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

The domestic impact of 9/11

Tensions in the Franco-American relationship which pre-dated 9/11 and were exacerbated by George W. Bush's election in 2000 included issues such as abortion, capital punishment and the U.S.'s support for hardliners in successive Israeli cabinets. While 73 per cent of French voters in a poll taken one week after September 11 supported the use of military action (a ratio of support second only to Britain in Europe), as well as their own country's commitment to the use of force,46 75 per cent of voters in another poll said that U.S. foreign policy was to some extent responsible for the rise of Islamic extremism.47 This has significant implications for French domestic stability and internal policy, given that over 4 million Muslims live in France. In the 2002 presidential elections National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen received only minor support from voters after he blamed rising crime upon migrant populations and called for the cessation of immigration. But the dual themes of the impact of globalization on French society and economy, together with the perception that the U.S. has embarked on an anti-Islamist crusade, has been blamed for anti-semitic activities by some French Muslims. The fact that an overwhelming majority of French Muslims polled (92 per cent) condemned the attack on New York suggests little support for bin Laden's call for Muslim peoples to rise up against host countries.48 Nevertheless, French elites were uncomfortable with Washington's soft line on Israel during the 2002 Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which some officials blame privately for recent domestic violence. Although the French government has consistently backed a Palestinian state, its simultaneous support for the U.S.'s actions in Afghanistan means it appears to be a supporter of U.S. policy, however tacitly. The question some voters and elites are asking is whether France can coexist securely with Islam in a period of strong antipathy towards Muslim extremism.

The difficulties in accommodating the electoral demands of France's domestic Muslim and Jewish constituencies have significant external implications, not only for French foreign policy in the Middle East, but also in terms of the Franco-American relationship. This is at least partly why Chirac urged Bush to confine military activities to Afghanistan and to avoid civilian casualties as far as possible. Although the issue of French support (or lack of it) was decided by the time much-anticipated American strikes were launched against Iraq, U.S. officials had much recent history to suggest that France would not be its most reliable ally in the region. Until the last hours of Desert Shield, the French foreign ministry sought a diplomatic solution with Iraq to the Kuwaiti crisis, although ultimately France provided the third-largest force on the ground in the Gulf War, and supplied invaluable air support. However, both the Mitterrand and Chirac administrations however reluctantly - consistently sided with China and Russia in the UN Security Council on the issue of lifting economic sanctions against Iraq, an action which proved successful only after more than a decade.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.