> Sarkozy effected a major policy change by rejoining NATO's integrated command. Macron is not against France being in NATO’s integrated command. Or rather, he

> Sarkozy effected a major policy change by rejoining NATO's integrated command. Macron is not against France being in NATO’s integrated command. Or rather, he would not be if the US were sane. The issue of the nuclear umbrella and European army are related to NATO, but not mutually exclusive. You cannot understand French recent history if you see it only through the lens of independence with respects to the US. > Since then, the "independence" stance has regressed and weakened to the point that France does not do anything without a German or EU representative by it's side... You haven’t been paying attention. The French point of view (well, that of the French government, anyway) is that there is a limit to their economic and military power. They are willing to play nice with their European neighbours because that is a force multiplier and that frees up resources that would otherwise be allocated to European security to do something else* (like international operations about which most other European countries do not care). It is blindingly obvious that France alone would be enough in Ukraine. So of course he’s going to talk to other European governments and try to avoid antagonising them. * edit: this sounds a by cynical; in reality there are other numerous reasons to be nice with one’s neighbours and it does not boil down only to the military and strategy.