This thesis focuses on the role foreign policy played in legitimizing the early French Fifth Republic from 1958 to 1960. I argue that President Charles de Gaulle employed foreign policy in the service of gaining public support for his new government and the new republic. Many historians have argued previously that his foreign policy of grandeur, as it came to be called, was used to recast international politics and France's role in them. My work diverges from these previous interpretations by arguing that Gaullist foreign policy served, in many instances, overarching domestic goals, not French international interests. I see foreign policy as inseparable from the broader domestic ambition to craft a persuasive narrative of renewal and national unity under Gaullist stewardship. In the process, my study puts de Gaulle's foreign policy into the context of his larger aspiration to precipitate constitutional reform and, thereafter, ensure popular support. De Gaulle exploited opportunities to use foreign policy in order to shape public opinion, both domestically and internationally. These efforts, as my research reflects, helped foster public support for the new regime and, by portraying national renewal, further discredited the preceding Fourth Republic.

This thesis deals with transformations of French foreign policy towards Québec and Canada. The first president of the French Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle, as well as all his successors together with their administration supported Québec's international ambitions and its desire to be sovereign abroad in the areas that fall within its competence in internal politics according to the Canadian Constitution. This support took place mainly on the platform of Francophonie. In 1995, the presidential candidate at that time, Jacques Chirac, clearly supported sovereingty movement. After the referendum won by the federalists France started to gradually reconcile with the federal government of Canada in various international politics issues such as protection of cultural diversity and multilateralism. France is also worried that in case of Canada's separation, the English speaking rest of the country would get more easily under the influence of the United States of America. France does not intend to admit this scenario. Jacques Chirac during this twelve-year mandate was gradually deepening the cooperation with Ottawa. Nevertheless, Québec remains the privileged partner of France in the fields of culture and education that are key for French foreign policy. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was even clearly...

La crise de la chaise vide dans la Communauté Economique Européenne (CEE) a éclaté après un désaccord fondamental entre la Commission de la CEE, le gouvernement français et les gouvernements partenaires de la France sur le financement de la Politique Agricole Commune. Le président français Charles de Gaulle donnait l’ordre de boycotter le Conseil des Ministres de la CEE et ses groupes de travail. Dans sa fameuse conférence de presse du 9 septembre 1965, il aggravait la crise en demandant la révision du Traité de Rome pour supprimer le vote à la majorité au Conseil des Ministres et pour dégrader la Commission de la CEE. Les partenaires de la France, sous la direction de la République Fédérale d’Allemagne, s’opposaient à la politique française et invitaient la France pour participer à une conférence extraordinaire sur les questions politiques, qui s’est déroulée en Janvier 1966 au Luxembourg. Bien que le président de Gaulle n’ait pas pu faire prévaloir sa conception, la crise de la chaise vide a finalement abouti à un ralentissement de l’intégration politique de l’Europe occidentale. / The empty chair crisis in the European Economic Community (EEC) occurred after a serious disagreement between the EEC Commission, the French government and France’s EEC partners over the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy. French president Charles de Gaulle instructed his diplomats to boycott the EEC Council of Ministers and related institutions. He escalated the crisis in autumn 1965 by demanding the revision of the EEC Treaty to obtain a veto right in the EEC Council of Ministers and to limit the EEC Commission’s political ambitions. France’s partners, under German leadership, opposed the French politics and invited the French government to a crisis conference, which was eventually held in January 1966 in Luxembourg. Although president de Gaulle was unable to implement his political conception, the crisis of the empty chair had lasting effects on the development of political integration in Western Europe.

Daniel Dolejší The causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion 2015 Abstract The core theme of this diploma thesis is the French Foreign Legion that is examined from the point of view of national interests and strategic culture of France. It is very unusual in developed countries to have foreigners as a part of national army. Goal of the thesis is to discover and describe the causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion. First of all, the author defines national interests and strategic culture of France for certain periods, and then he assesses the contribution of the Legion to fulfillment of goals connected to the national interests and the strategic culture. To the main conclusions of this work belongs that the first hypothesis was confirmed, the French Foreign Legion helped to reach goals based on national interests in certain periods. On the other hand, the second hypothesis was not completely confirmed. The author expected that the strategic culture always stabilizes and supports the role of the Legion, but he found out the opposite for the interwar period. The author supposes higher importance of the Legion in the area of peacekeeping operations under a mandate of the UN or NATO because the EU currently lacks troops prepared to be deployed abroad.