Constructing the Gaullist Consensus

"I am on a theater stage and I pretend to believe in it, I am pretending that France is a great country. It is a perpetual illusion" (Charles de Gaulle). These words raised the relevant questions for this study: Is the much-lauded cross-party consensus on France's great power status a myth, intended to promote internal cohesion and the French identity? How has this affected the Franco-American security relationship? Analyzing the National Assembly debates on the country's military program laws, the author applies constructivist concepts to answer these questions. Tamara Keating studied international relations at the universities of Passau, Paris, and Hamburg, and is now working at the European Parliament.