ABSTRACT
Russia has always constituted a crucial feature in the European security landscape. With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, on the one hand the EU as an organization had to learn how to deal with a new neighbour bearing in mind that ‘it would be a historic error to begin the next century by locking Russia out of European affairs’ (Patten 1999: 2). On the other hand, it also meant that France, like any other European state, had to (re)evaluate its own relationship with Russia in a new strategic environment. In the post-Cold War world, France's main foreign policy objectives of ‘grandeur’ and independence, as well as its leadership role as a great European power, could be hindered by the increasing influence of a reunified Germany and by the weight of the EU itself as a more autonomous political player in the European security game.
