The Second Ghost of 19 Forty

The success of france as a european and international power over the last 75 years owes much to the determination to lay the ghost of 19 forty. President makron continues the gal list tradition in seizing the opportunity to step into the current vacancy for the job of leader of the free world. This does not always square easily with more limited german objectives for the eu's role as an international power. The algerian crisis is sometimes seen as another messy and difficult act of decolonization. But the ghost still flits around the corridors of power, urging french leaders to live up to de gall's vision of France's manifest destiny.