France is in the midst of political crisis. Just as Macron announced his new nominee to lead France’s government, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu offered his resignation within a month—the fifth French head-of-government to do so within two years. Yet it is precisely this unstable France that offers Europe a crucial lesson, that goes back to the 1960s: strategic autonomy as the foundation of future defence policy. While other Member States within the European Union still struggle with the concept, France offers us a future-proof idea that certainly needs further development cannot be understated in these times of waning American interest in the European continent. 

It is well known that since Charles De Gaulle’s presidency in the 1960s, France has traditionally taken a more individualistic (or nationalistic, if you will) course when it comes to joint European defence. By the ‘60s end, Paris had withdrawn from NATO’s command structure, leading to today’s French foreign policy of insisting on self-reliance from the US and China. The good news about France’s contrarian course? That we in Europe have a nuclear umbrella, which, unlike the British, does not require US approval. Because De Gaulle insisted on retaining that prerogative, France is today able to use its nuclear arsenal to defend its allies, as Macron indicated earlier this year. 

Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine and the uncertainty caused by Trump’s volatile presidency, strategic autonomy has moved higher up on Europe’s agenda. But despite the term’s rhetorically powerful substance, actual policy has yet to follow through. It is now today, if ever before, the time for Europe to fill that gap.   

Macron, for example, took the initiative with the British to deploy European troops as a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine in the event of a possible ceasefire. This is exactly the kind of leadership Europe needs in order not to be dependent on American plans, despite the fact that Europe is currently still on the sidelines and has little or no involvement in the peace negotiations initiated by Trump. That said, strategic autonomy does not mean undermining NATO. On the contrary, improving European defence is also in Trump’s interest, having campaigned ferociously on the idea that Europe has been free-riding on America’s military budget. Europe should therefore double-down on European joint procurement and production, become less dependent on American intelligence and introduce faster European decision-making. 

With yet another government collapse in France upon the fall of the Lecornu cabinet — which lasted a mere 14 hours — these strategic plans have lost the momentum it should be carrying. A plan that, with a now-closer Franco-German axis under the chancellorship of Friedrich Merz, could be of great importance for Europe’s defence. 

Take the example of the would-be French Minister of the Armed Forces, Bruno Le Maire, under Lecornu’s now-late cabinet. A former Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, known as an elitist within France, as well as a gifted novelist, Le Maire was a man who, through his many years of sessions in Brussels within the Council, successfully advocated for European economic strategic autonomy. Controversial across the entire political spectrum due to the enormous increase in public debt he incurred, it is therefore not surprising that his presence in a new cabinet under Lecornu was not appreciated. Nevertheless, thanks in part to the president’s personal appeal to the minister, it is a regret that Le Maire will not be able to leave his mark within European defence as well.  

Diplomats often highlight the idea that if European Member States were to finally start acting as representatives of “Europe”, we would be far more effective in planning for the future than if they remain sat behind a sign bearing their country’s name. It is this longed-for way-of-thought—of internalizing our mutual security interdependence—that imbues the essence of strategic autonomy. But now that Washington D.C. is unquestionably turning its back on us, the necessity to work together and accelerate our efforts to advance Europe’s defensive capacity is indisputable. France’s historic relation with autonomie stratégique shows us that strategic autonomy is not an idle term of rhetoric, but a practical course towards security and sovereignty, one which we may surely regret if we continue to retreat into geopolitical denial.