ABSTRACT
Gaullist ideology considering France a “Great Power” has underpinned all the foreign policy of the Fifth Republic since 1958. By 2021, as far as foreign policy institutions are concerned, France had the third largest network of embassies and consulates in the world after the United States and People’s Republic of China. Military diplomacy remains a fully-fledged element of French foreign policy. A decision-making process Withdraw largely concentrated in the hands of the executive and, more particularly, with the president of the Republic largely facilitating this dimension of external policy under the Fifth Republic. France’s EU membership definitely appears as a resource for enhancing national interests on the world stage. In the context of the new bipolar confrontation between the United States and China, France appears to be a middle Power with still global ambitions. Many French political and bureaucratic elites consider this utilitarian strategy as the way of preserving France’s grandeur.
