| Between 1960 and early 2008, France launched 43 military operations in Francophone Africa. The remarkable continuity of France's active military policy in Africa is a puzzle, when one takes into account the major changes in the international strategic environment as well as in French defense policy during the period in question. The conventional wisdom in the literature in French and English is that the continuity of French African military policy can be attributed primarily to ideas rooted in French republican and colonial identity and a continuing belief in a civilizing mission in Africa. My dissertation argues, however, that a realist theory of military intervention, based on the imperative of maintaining France's relative power and security in the international system, is better able to explain French military policy in Africa since 1960. In the dissertation, I analyze nine historical case studies of French operations in Africa, looking specifically at the strategic importance of the target states and their role in regional security in Francophone Africa, the decisions of the major French political officials and senior military officers for intervention, and the greater context of the interventions in the development of defense policy and strategy in the Fifth Republic. I evaluate each case systematically to ascertain the relative explanatory power of both theories as explanations for French military policy in Africa, using hypotheses generated from both realist theory and the conventional wisdom of French colonial identity. |
