Thread by @EHunterChristie

1/7
It has been obvious for a long time that Gaullist ideas are rooted in how France bemoaned its loss of Great Power status. But if you're a mid-sized European nation worried about Moscow, you want reliable protection and no artificial irritants to relations with the U.S.

2/7
But how, then, should Europeans insure themselves against a possibly more demanding or overstretched U.S.? Security starts at home, at the national level. CEE Allies are moving towards this: strong national capabilities and defence budgets are the win-win approach.

3/7
In a healthy context of high defence investment, allied collaboration will be on a solid footing, with no resentment due to free riding. The other part is boots on the ground and skin in the game. Here, another France is coming into focus -

4/7
While criticism of #Macron's approach to #Moscow is largely justified, #France is currently doing a very good thing in leading the formation of a new #NATO presence in #Romania.

5/7
This is in effect a normalisation - France is now doing what the US, UK, Canada and Germany were already doing in Northeast Europe since 2016-17. And it should be welcomed.

6/7
Less welcome:
1-treating arms sales as some kind of existential issue
2-fantasies of a concert of Great Powers in which being at the top table is more important than Allies
3-foreign policy cynicism and unwillingness to call a spade a spade

7/7
Je conclus en français.
La France que l'on aime, c'est celle qui croit haut et fort en ses propres idéaux : Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. Et donc qui pense: "Le régime de Poutine c'est une bande de salopards qui méritent une raclée. Ils touchent la Pologne, on les défonce."