ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how the French elite redefines its approach to European security and defense policies during the Libyan War in 2011. It uses a new discourse-theoretical research design combining the Essex School and Interpretive Policy Analysis to show that the Libyan War defense discourses became a tipping point for the de-unionization of the French approach to European defense. The EU’s immobility could no longer cater to the rules of effectiveness and actorness capabilities developed in French discourse during the 2007–2009 NATO reintegration process, which have become prevalent throughout the political spectrum and change the social and political logics of discourse. The chapter lays out that French security and defense policy still Europeanizes without unionizing, bringing an end to the CSDP identity project pursued so far. Conversely, NATO reintegration is re-signified through the backdoor, leading to a new pragmatic Atlanticism in close union with the Americans. Altogether, at the end of the presidency of Sarkozy (2007–2012), the Gaullist-autonomist legacy has been considerably reconfigured to the point of vanishing.
