From Sarkozy To Macron: Changes And Changes In Franco-American Relations

As an important trans-Atlantic partnership,the relationship between France and the United States is obviously affected by the international situation,the internal affairs of the two countries,and the diplomatic orientation of the leaders.It reciprocates in a unique cycle of decline,relaxation,strengthening,and decline,but it shows a certain degree of stability.After World War II,the United States promoted the establishment of the Atlantic Alliance for the purpose of containing the Soviet Union and maintaining the capitalist world order,laying the foundation for contemporary US-French bilateral relations.Since the establishment of the French Fifth Republic,France has followed the United States unwillingly and has always played the role of a "disobedient" ally of the United States.After the disintegration of the bipolar structure,France-US relations have gone through a period of relative stability,but they have fallen to a freezing point due to the Iraq War.In 2007,Nicolas Sarkozy entered the Elysée Palace and made the restoration of France-US relations a priority of his foreign policy.The outbreak of the financial crisis has brought huge challenges to the relaxation and development of relations between the two countries.In 2012,the left-wing leader Fran?ois Hollande defeated Sarkozy and became the new French president.For reasons such as coping with the financial crisis and balancing Germany's increasing influence in the European debt crisis,the Hollande government has continued the pro-American stance of the previous administration and strengthened the policy coordination with the Obama administration in the field of diplomacy and security in the diplomacy of the United States,which has continued to strengthen the relationship between France and the United States.However,the rise of populism on both sides of the Atlantic has made U.S.-European relations more precarious.In 2017,President Donald Trump and President Emmanuel Macron successively came to power.Under the influence of the Trump administration's "America First" strategy,the relationship between France and the United States showed a new round of decline.Based on the perspective of historical evolution,the relationship between France and the United States has shown a clear upward and downward trend in the context of the 2008 financial crisis,the European debt crisis,the refugee crisis,the Ukrainian crisis,Trump's “America First” strategy,and the Covid-19 pandemic.It has experienced three stages of relaxation,strengthening and decline.Due to the asymmetry of France-US relations,bilateral relations are obviously affected by the strategic adjustment of the United States,but under the influence of the framework of the Atlantic Alliance,the relations between the two countries can maintain the stability of "harmony but difference,fight but not break".Biden's "America is back" policy provides an opportunity for the limited restoration of French-US relations in the future.This article starts with combing the characteristics and main manifestations of French-American relations during the Sarkozy-Holland-Macron period,analyzing the evolutionary trends and reasons of French-American relations over the past decade,and exploring the internal logic of its changes and invariability.