French Policy in Africa: A Lonely Battle Against Destabilization

men& policy i n Africa: A Lonely Battle Against Destabilization Pierre Lellouche and Dorninique Moisi I A year ago in May, French intervention in Shaba focused international attention on France’s commitments to Africa+ommitments that establish France as the only Western power with a large military involvement in the African struggle. Currently , France has some 14,000 troops deployed in more than twenty African states and territories (the second largest “foreign” contingent, after Cuba’s 40,000 troops [see Table 11); it has sophisticated military hardware such as Jaguar fighter-bombers in Mauritania and Chad and Mirages in Djibouti; and it is directly involved on four ”fronts”: on the Western Sahara, Chad, Zaire, and in the latent conflict in Djibouti and the Horn.’ France’s policy of repeated military interventions in Africa is the most controversial and widely criticized aspect of President Giscard d’Estaing’s “new“ foreign policy. Internationally, the strongest criticisms have come from non-French-speaking African states, particularly during last July’s Organization of African Unity (OAU) conference in Khartum. Even Nigeria has denounced France’s intervention in Shaba as a modernized form of nineteenth century imperialism. Accordingto General Obasanjo, A new Conference of Berlin is not the appropriate answer to the type of problems raised by the recent and unfortunate Kolwesi episode. Just as our ancestors could not accept the gunboats of the last century, we cannot accept the dropping of paratroopers in the twentieth century. At home, French African policy has been criticized both by the Left, particularly the Communists, and by Gaullists. Criticism by both parties have been strikingly similar in both form and substance; at the same time that the Communist daily, L’Humanitt, described France as the “Gendarme Otanien de l’Afriq~e,’’~ ex-Gaullist Prime Minister Pierre Messmer warned that “France must not be a gendarme in Afri~a.”~ Other Gaullists also denounced 1. In addition, French troops are also deployed in Southern Lebanon under the UN flag until spring, 1979. 2 Lekonde, 21 July 1978. 3. L‘Hurnanitk described France as “the spearhead of the Atlantic Alliance, 1, 2 June, 1978. See also an interview of George Marchais, leader of the PCF, denouncing France as ”the gendarme of Africa” in leune Afrique, 6 December 1978. 4. Le Monde, 26 August 1978. Pierre Lellouche is a research fellow at the newly founded lnstitut Francais des Relations Internationales (IFRZ). Dorninique Moisi is Associate Professor of Political Sociology, University of Paris and Associate Director of IFRI. 108 French Policy in Africa I 109 Table 1 Deployment of French and Cuban Military Personnel in Africa Country Military Personnel Military Personnel French Cuban Algeria Angola Benin Burundi Cameroon Central African Empire Chad Congo Djibouti Ethiopia Gabon Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guinea (Equatorial) Ivory Coast Lybia Madagascar Mauritania Mayotte Morocco Mozambique Niger Reunion Senegal Sierra Leone Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Upper Volta Zaire Indian Ocean Islands* 90 (**I 30 90 (**I 1,800 10 4,500 500 500 25 50 100 2,000 250 60 2,000 1,300 80 40 20 70 80 21,000 300 12,000 200 to 300 70 20 to 30 100to 125 30 300 100to 125 20 to 30 20 to 30 Total with estimated figures** 13,695 500 14,195 34,000to 34,500 * lles Glorieuses (lo), Tromelin (10). Juan de Nova (501, Bassas de India, Europe (10) ** Estimated figures: 500 Source: Derived from estimated figures obtained by Rene Backman and published in Le Nouvel Observateur, 22 May, 1978. International Security I 210 President Giscard's African policy as "a betrayal of earlier Gaullist policy and a return to "la politique des bloc^."^ One of the greatest problems facing French policy in Africa is the traditional one of change or continuity, a dilemma which has plagued policy makers since the end of the Gaullist era. Change, in French African policy, has been manifested in and affected by the ferment within Africa, the new French military doctrine (elaborated since 1974-75), and the personality of the president . The continuities arise from earlier Gaullist policies. It is the intention of this articleto examine, primarily through a study of political/securityissues in sub-Saharan Africa, the implications of these policy changes within...