Powershift and Strategic Adjustment in French Military Engagement in Central Africa

Abstract

International Politics as Power Politics International politics (as any form of politics) is a matter "of goal attainment and control over one's environment" (Deutsch, 1967). For this reason the use of power, militarily or otherwise, isaguiding principle of actors' behaviorin the international arena (Morgenthau & Thompson, 1993). On the other hand, within an anarchical world (B ull, 1995) of competing goals and struggles (for power, wealth or honour), one of the fundamental (although tacit and unwritten) rules of the international game is to put this power to use whenever and wherever necessary. In this study, "power" is "the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests" (Weber, 1964: 152). When "put simply and crudely, [power] is the ability to prevail in conflict and to overcome obstacles" (Deutsch, 1967). Under cooperative or collaborative circum stances, like the ones characterizing the military relationship between France and its former African colonies, the second part of this definition, (i.e. "the ability [...] to overcome obstacles") is the more relevant. In the 1960s, the former French colonies allowed France to establish a web of military cooperation arrangements,