Foreign Policy

Fighting Islamic jihad remains France’s top priority, and [President Macron's trip to Iraq] demonstrates that. But in the context of the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan, it is also a demonstration that French [and European] vital interests remain in the region, and that France [and Europe] are not leaving.

We’re not islands. The decisions of our allies have consequences for their allies. You get this impression that people are making policy into a void when there should be coordination. [...] What people will overlook is that an entire generation of western practitioners [including military officers, diplomats, intelligence officials and journalists] went through Afghanistan. This is NATO’s most legitimate mission, the one that was most central to our understanding of ourselves.