ABSTRACT
The end of a divided Europe has brought the end of the conditions that facilitated the assertion of French exceptionalism. It has brought to a head the dilemmas inherent in the decline from great power status, which France was unable to resolve in the 1950s and was thereafter able to hide under the mantle of Gaullism. The situation unquestionably adds a critical dimension to the debate over French identity. The basic case being made is that an intimate link exists between French identity and the European order. The essence of French identity determines those inviolable basic values that must be preserved by the state and, in an important way, therefore, thus sets limits on what content can be given to French identity in shaping responses to context. The language of governing is the mechanism through which French foreign policy actually becomes part of the content of French identity.
