France’s New Western Idea

It also explains his effort to forge civilian nuclear-energy ties with Muslim countries while firmly backing U.S. pressure on Iran. In January, France's nuclear-energy giant Areva inked a deal for two reactors with the United Arab Emirates, and Sarkozy has also signed nuclear-cooperation accords with Libya and Algeria. Experts say that these moves cleverly undermine the Iranian argument that the West wants to deprive all Muslims of nuclear technology.

The drive to strengthen the West perhaps also inspired Sarkozy's 40-day post-election dash to get a "mini-treaty"—a stripped-down replacement for the EU's failed constitution—adopted. Sarkozy's document, which dropped controversial aspects of the original (like a flag and anthem) could be ratified by the end of this year. If Sarkozy has often seemed to defy Europe—breaking a promise to obey its budget cap, bad-mouthing the ECB's relatively hard money policies, talking down the euro—that's not a sign that he doesn't believe in the West. Just that he wants European policy to serve French economic interests, which could use easy money right now.

The difficulty: the West is not exactly crying out for French leadership. German officials, in particular, don't like his stand on the ECB, the euro, the budget or the Mediterranean Union. They oppose his nuclear-sales campaign as a proliferation threat. And they suspect his style as a throwback to de Gaulle, who always saw France as first among equals in Europe. That's hardly unwarranted suspicion, when Sarkozy talks as he has recently of promoting the "politics of civilization to establish France as the soul of the new renaissance that the world needs."

At times, Sarkozy seems to talk big for small, domestic reasons. His proposed carbon tax on imports from countries that don't observe the Kyoto Protocol provoked sharp protests from the United States and EU, but it never went anywhere, as Sarkozy probably anticipated. It did help him score points at home.

Sarkozy's mettle as a Western leader will be tested when, as president of the EU for six months starting on July 1, he'll get to shape the European agenda on defense, climate, energy and immigration policies. And if EU members ratify the mini-treaty this year, Sarkozy will help pick the first full-time European president. He's thought to favor Tony Blair, but if he didn't have a day job, he'd probably be angling for the post himself.

© 2008