ABSTRACT
The postwar record of Franco-German security relations has been characterized by cycles. France's vaunted consensus on defense and security is packed with contradictions, and the more that French leaders profess an interest in constructing a European Pillar of defense, the more evident will become the contradictions. More important than what Carolingian Europe was is what it represents—a vision of European unity based upon a Franco-German kinship derived from the Franks, the west Germanic tribe that occupied much of Gaul and had its territorial base in the lands bordering the Rhine. The irony is that France rarely gets the opportunity to reject German Carolingian initiatives, bold or otherwise, for the good reason that the model's attractiveness to Germany is much less than it once was, and is growing weaker over time. Two elements of grammar, one analogy, the other metaphor, and best capture the underlying strategic contradiction of Franco-German relations.
