ABSTRACT
The French response to the pressures of the Third Nuclear Age is overwhelmingly characterised by continuity and by a resolute commitment to French nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantors of security in a more complex environment. There is some limited interest from the French military (and in Parliament) in advanced non-nuclear weaponry, but this is seen as subordinate – and separate – to the nuclear force. In fact, with US power appearing to be on the wane, Russia challenging the post-Cold War Euro-Atlantic security complex, and following the UK withdrawal from the European Union, French officials see the nuclear force as increasingly central to European security. For French political and military elites, stability, predictability and continuity are the chief objectives when it comes to managing the challenges of the emerging Third Nuclear Age, and this remains focused on a secure nuclear deterrent against both regional and great power threats and on the NPT as the cornerstone of the international nuclear arms control edifice.
