France charts a different route
Of late, Paris may have suffered a few setbacks, but it knows how to ride the crest of a wave in a time of crisis.
France is currently passing through a bad phase. Household confidence is low and the rate of unemployment is still high.
To make matters worse, the vote against the EU constitution has weakened domestic dynamism and the country's international aura. But the final blow was dealt when Paris lost to London in the contest to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
The Murdoch press, known for its French bashing, makes one wonder what the British readers may think of France when they have nothing to read about it.
The French bashing reached a new height when Britain's Evening Standard published a delusive report on French food and restaurants in London (Gulf News 8/6).
As to the Olympic Games, it was a disillusion. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoé complained that Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair "did not respect the rules".
Namely, he did not refrain from launching a negative campaign against Paris. It is also said that he individually met members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a few hours before the voting. This is against the IOC rules. Blair, however, said he "did nothing wrong".
More seriously, Blair was instrumental in raising a debate on England's rebate to the EU's budget contribution. He argued that it is unreasonable to renegotiate it as long as 40 per cent of the EU's expenses is devoted to the Common Agricultural Policy.
His refrain was: Why pay subsidies to French farmers when European research and development budgets get so little? The answer is, it all boils down to autonomy, and it has a cost!
However, Britain seems to have no problem either in driving foreign-made cars or eating imported food.
France has a lot to learn from the outstanding capacity of the service industry to create jobs, conceive products in the UK and manufacture them where the cost is lower.
But France can also take pride in some recent successes. Notable amongst them are the launching of the Airbus A380, and the takeover of UK's Allied Domencq spirits group by the French Pernod Ricard.
At a brilliant military parade on July 14, the National Day of France, President Jacques Chirac reminded his people that the country's social model stills allows it to be the fourth largest exporter in the world and to top the list in terms of health services and quality of life.
What is at stake is the capability of a country to maintain a certain level of independence and retain its national values and assets in a globalised world.
The same applies to international policy. In the presence of the only superpower, there is usually a tendency to be on the winning side. The other option is to accept a diversified world.
After the terrorist attacks in London, a victim told a television channel: "I don't think we were hit because our troops are in Iraq."
I don't think that either. This is a simple answer to a complex situation. The war in Iraq, for instance, was supposed to fight terrorism. But it has generated an opposite effect.
US President George W. Bush's indiscriminate approach against terrorism may draw comfort from the cooperation between the US and Western specialised agencies, but it will never be enough.
Besides poverty, fundamentalist indoctrination or gross injustice, the killing of tens of thousands of Iraqis and the "ghettoisation" of the 25,000 Palestinians of East Jerusalem create the right conditions for the spread of terrorism.
This explains why the ways to fight terrorism cannot be the same for all countries. A responsible foreign policy is part of them.
Napoleon may have been unknowingly correct when he said 200 years ago: "Kings only like those who serve them as long as they serve them."
Luc Debieuvre is a French political analyst and writer on economic issues. He is also a board member of Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques.
