Cette thèse a pour objet la politique étrangère de la France dans la crise du Golfe (1990-1991) et la crise irakienne (2002-2003). Afin d'expliquer les variations du comportement français la participation à la guerre du Golfe, l'opposition à la guerre d'Irak, trois approches, trois niveaux d'analyse, sont mobilisés. Le jeu gouvernemental met au jour la construction interne de la politique étrangère, retraçant les marchandages au sommet de l'État et révélant les biais par lesquels le champ politique national et les administrations influent sur la politique menée. Le jeu diplomatique, en restituant la complexité des processus d'interaction et de négociation interétatiques, montre comment les enjeux et objectifs tactiques se construisent dans les crises, sont sensibles à la configuration du jeu et aux prises de positions des autres diplomaties. L'analyse structurale souligne le poids de la structure du système international- son état comme sa tendance - et de la position d'un État en son sein sur la politique étrangère. Dévoiler les mécanismes par lesquels ces pressions structurelles agissent nécessite de mettre en relation la structure du système, l'ordre international, les perceptions des dirigeants et les comportements des États. C'est au final un mode d'articulation des niveaux d'analyse et des facteurs de détermination de la politique étrangère en temps de crise internationale qui est proposé - un mode qui puisse éclairer l'interpénétration, les combinaisons et interactions entre ces trois niveaux. / Analyzing the differing French policy during the Gulf and Iraq wars - military participation to the former, diplomatic opposition to the latter, requires a multi-level approach to foreign policy. Graham Allison's governmental game paradigm shows that foreign policy is the resultant of bargainings among central players. It is also capable of revealing the ways in which domestic and bureaucratic polities interfere in the decision-making process. The diplomatic game approach put forward in this work focuses on the interstate interactions. It underlines how much foreign policy stakes and goals are defined and constructed in the process of diplomatic negociation, influenced by other diplomacies' stances. Waltzian structural theory concentrates on the systemic determinants of foreign policy. A State's position within the system, and the structure of the system - its current state as well as its trend - strongly determine and shape foreign policy. Connecting and articulating structure of the system, international order, decision-makers' perceptions and States' behavior appears to be a fruitful way to understand the mechanisms through which structural constraints and incentives act and impact on foreign policy. Afterall, this research attempts to combine infra-state, inter-state and systemic levels of analysis in a novel way, in order to explain the complexity of foreign policy in international cri sis.

This thesis depicts the French security and foreign policy regarding European security. The study covers French foreign and security policy in the aftermath of the Second World War, the period of Charles de Gaulle, Fran&ccedil / ois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac. The theme of autonomy in European security is maintained throughout the years under scrutiny. It is argued that the search for autonomy has been a constant goal of the French security and foreign policy. It is also maintained that France has a policy of employing organizations like NATO and European Union as an instrument to advance its own causes, where possible.

This thesis concentrates on Czechoslovak-French relations in 1989-1992. It examines the factors, that form foreign policies. This thesis goes from realistic theory of the clash of national interests. First chapter concentrates on the forming of Czechoslovak foreign policy. The second one examines the common history of Czechoslovak-French relationship with the accent on French foreign policy and factors that influence it. Third chapter is concerned of Czechoslovak-French relation in 1989-1992. The last chapter solves the impact of the Treaty of understanding and cooperation of these two states.

This thesis is a contribution to the study of French foreign policy in the time of “old diplomacy” in Northern Europe. Aiming to fill a gap, the object of investigation is French foreign policy in the Baltic area between 1871 and 1914 (from the French defeat during the Franco-Prussian War to the outbreak of the First World War). Particular attention is directed at the assets of the French diplomacy at work in the Baltic Sea: naval military planning, financial loans and culture. Since the period was dominated by the diplomatic isolation that Bismarck had placed France with the aim to prevent her from creating any kind of alliance to embark in a war of revenge against Germany, France carried out a policy of making ententes and alliances in order to break out from this isolation. However, in her attempt to emerge, France was challenged by Germany especially in relations with Denmark and Sweden. Although French foreign policy was able to use the loan as an instrument to secure a success with Russia by establishing a military treaty in 1892, but France did not succeed to attract and influence Sweden in the same way because of the risk of her turning to Germany. Also strongly challenged by Germany in Denmark, French foreign policy could not stop the willingness of Denmark to adopt a policy of neutrality. But, because of her intervention between Russia and Great Britain in the Dogger Bank incident in 1904, French diplomacy succeeded to gain the support of the British fleet in the case of a naval war in the Baltic Sea for operations against the German coast. Bringing together Russia and Great Britain for a naval cooperation in the case of a war in the Baltic Sea was, without any doubt, not only the most audacious and difficult task for French foreign policy, but also a sign of its strong revival. However, this Russo-British naval cooperation could not be converted into practice because of the geographical specificities of the Baltic Sea and the difficulties of naval military planning. Adressing this aspect, this thesis reveals the fundamental mistakes of the naval theoreticians who were defending naval theories based on land military theories and experiences.

The reform of the United Nations Security Council belongs among the most discussed topics in the field of international relations. The criticism calling for adjustments to the Council's structure arose with the transformation of the international scene during the years of the Cold War. The process of decolonisation and the subsequent growth of the UN membership along with the decline of Great Britain and France fuelled the international pressure calling for the UNSC to reflect this new situation in its composition. However, in spite of the great number of proposals, since 1963 there has not been any major change. France, a permanent member of the Security Council, continued maintaining its negative attitude towards the reform until the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, shortly after the end of the Cold War, the position of France changed. This change was articulated through the speech of Alain Juppé at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly in 1993, where France openly supported the UNSC reform. It can therefore be said that in 1993 there was a great change in French foreign policy. This thesis analyses how this change is projected in political discourse. Its aim is examining the nature of argumentation in the abovementioned discourse along with the way it corresponds to the...

This dissertation seeks to conceptualise and operationalise the concept of soft balancing in international relations by articulating a “theory of tripartite strategic balancing” which is applicable to both international and regional unipolar systems. It has a twofold purpose: one theoretical and the other empirical. First, it seeks to develop a theory of tripartite strategic balancing which encompasses three forms of strategic balancing: internal, external, and soft balancing. The second part seeks to test the theory’s utility in explaining international political outcomes in the post-Cold War international system. In particular, it seeks to ascertain whether and how “second-tier great powers” have strategically balanced against the United States on a global level since the end of the Cold War. The analyses will focus largely on the foreign policies of Russia and France – the chief soft balancers. However, this dissertation also seeks to extend the concept of soft balancing into the regional level of analysis by examining whether and how minor-regional powers soft balance against regional unipolar leaders. For instance, it will examine whether and how the Russian Federation has been soft balanced against by states in the “European Near Abroad.” The analyses will focus primarily on the foreign policies of Poland – the chief soft balancer in the region. The dissertation will employ three in-depth case studies – the Kosovo Crisis (1999), the Iraqi wars (1991-2003), and the Georgia Crisis (2008) – to verify whether or not tripartite strategic balancing is actually occurring as the theory predicts. It will heavily rely on sources and interviews conducted during my time working at the United Nations Security Council and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These findings seek to contribute a more nuanced strand of thinking to the realist paradigm in international relations, and they offer practical implications for both US and Russian foreign policymaking.

Les relations entre la France et la Hongrie ont été, au fil de l’histoire, placées à la fois sous le signe de la complexité et celui de l’ambiguïté, souvent marquées par une certaine distance et parfois empreintes de ressentiments. Au cours de l'époque de l'époque moderne, l'occupation turque, puis la longue association de la Hongrie aux Habsbourgs ont contribué à dresser, entre les deux pays, des barrières, et à freiner le développement de liens plus conséquents. De manière similaire, au cours du XXe siècle, alors que beaucoup de facteurs géographiques, culturels ou humains auraient du conduire la France à nouer avec la Hongrie les mêmes rapports de confiance et d'amitié qu'avec les autres capitales d'Europe centre-orientale, les deux Guerres mondiales – et les périodes révisionnistes et communistes qui les ont suivis en Hongrie –, mais aussi la profonde blessure infligée aux Hongrois par le traité du Trianon, ont constamment rejeté les deux États dans des camps opposés et contribué à créer, dans un pays dont l'intelligentsia était pourtant historiquement prompte à « tourner son regard vers Paris », le mythe d'un « amour sans retour » envers la France. Longtemps considérée comme une zone d'influence germanique exclusive, la Hongrie ne représenta ainsi jamais réellement un partenaire privilégié pour la France à l'est du continent et les relations entre les deux pays demeurèrent très largement irrégulières et dissymétriques. Dans ces conditions, les bouleversements des années 1989-1990, tout en offrant l'occasion de redessiner un nouveau paysage européen tourné vers l'avenir, ont autorisé la possibilité d'un nouveau départ des rapports entre les deux États. En se plaçant dans la lignée des recherches réalisées sur les relations entre la France et la Hongrie au cours du XXe siècle, ce travail offre une première analyse du resserrement global des liens entre les deux États dans un contexte nouveau. En partant du constat que les relations franco-hongroises changent de dimension à partir de 1989 – une transformation qui est exposée et analysée – ce travail cherche à comprendre si cette mutation représente la marque d’une modification de la nature réelle de la politique française en Hongrie, alors même que celle-ci n’avait été jusqu’alors traitée que comme une périphérie globalisée dans le cadre d’une « politique de l’Est » très large, et d'autre part si la période marque la fin des absences de Marianne en Hongrie et de plus de « 300 ans d’amour impossible » entre les deux pays. Au crépuscule de la guerre froide et à l'aube de l'élargissement de l'UE, face à l'ampleur des rattrapages à effectuer et à la pesanteur des stéréotypes à surpasser, les années 1989-2004 marquent-elles la fin des relations ambiguës et asymétriques entre la France et la Hongrie et le commencement d'une nouvelle ère des relations franco-hongroises ? Le travail se décompose en quatre parties : une mise en perspective générale du sujet et une première analyse de l'idée de « nouveau départ », une étude de l'évolution des relations culturelles entre les deux États, un développement sur le renforcement des liens économiques bilatéraux, et enfin une étude des relations entre les deux pays à la lumière de la question de l'élargissement euroatlantique. / Throughout history, relations between France and Hungary have been complex and ambiguous, often characterized by a certain distance and sometimes marked by a genuine resentment. During the early modern period, the Turkish occupation and the long association of Hungary to the Habsburg Empire certainly contributed to building barriers between the two states and thus to slowing down the development of stronger ties. In a similar manner, during the 20th century, even though many factors  – geographical, cultural, as well as societal – should have led France to develop a similar relationship of confidence and friendship with Hungary as those it had with other central European capitals, the two World Wars – and the revisionist and communist periods that followed in Hungary – as well as the deep “injury” inflicted on the Hungarians by the Treaty of Trianon have constantly pushed both states into opposing camps. In a country where the intelligentsia was historically quick to “look towards Paris”, these factors and events contributed to creating the myth of an “impossible love” between the two countries. Considered for a very long time as a German zone of influence, Hungary never really represented a favored partner for France in the eastern part of the continent, and the relations between the countries remained largely irregular and asymmetrical. Under these conditions, the major upheavals of the years 1989-1990, while offering an opportunity to redesign a new Europe, also allowed a chance for a new start in French-Hungarian relations. This thesis provides the first analysis of the overall strengthening of French-Hungarian relations in this new historical context. Starting with the observation that French-Hungarian relations undergo a change of dimension from 1989 – a transformation that will be discussed and analyzed – our work tries to understand on the one hand whether this mutation represents a modification of the real nature of French foreign policy towards Hungary, given that the country was mostly treated until then as part of the global periphery; and, on the other hand, whether this period marks the end of an absent France in Hungary. At the twilight of the Cold War and the dawn of the EU's enlargement, does the period from 1989 to 2004 mark the end of an ambiguous and asymmetrical relationship between France and Hungary and the start of a new era for French-Hungarian relations? The thesis is divided into four main parts : the first part provides a general overview of the topic and tests the idea of a “new beginning” of French-Hungarian relations. The second part delivers an analysis of the evolution of cultural relations between the two countries from 1989 to 2004. The third part is dedicated to the strengthening of economic ties between the two states. Finally, the last part studies the evolution of the relations between the two countries throughout the process of the EU and NATO's enlargement.