What will new French President Macron do about Syria & ISIL?
May 8, 2017
Now that Emmanuel Macron is president of France, it is worthwhile asking what sort of foreign policy he would be likely to pursue. The French presidential system is more centralized than the American. I once did some consulting at the Quai D’Orsay, the French Foreign Ministry, when there was a new foreign minister. I asked my colleagues if his installation might lead to any change of policy. They were surprised. “No, they said. It is set by the president.”
Macron favors continued French intervention in West Africa and Mali in order to “eradicate the threat at its origin.” He is referring to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), which has attacked targets in Algeria and which tried to take over Mali before the French intervention. He said he hoped to strengthen international cooperation with countries threatened by terrorism, such as Tunisia, Turkey, and some African countries. This policy is a continuation of Francois Hollande’s war on terrorism, and seems likely to lend itself well enough to cooperation with the United States under President Trump.
