France Losing Military Muscle As Debts Erode Defense

French strategic culture highly values military interventions as a means to defend national interests abroad. As a result, the French military has been involved in more than a hundred military operations since the end of the Cold War. Yet, France is also grappling with the same fiscal and economic problems as many other Western states. Future interventions could become a rare luxury rather than a widely used solution aimed at resolving international crises. A Familiar Scenario In keeping with other NATO member-states, the desire to reduce public debt has had a strong impact on French defense policy. In 2010, for…