Liberalism as a Way to Resolve France's Relations with Chad

Today, France is one of the seven most powerful nations in the world. France is a free country with an overall score of ninety from The Freedom House. France is a democratic republic with free and fair elections. Before the French Revolution, France’s form of government was a monarchy. After the French Revolution, The First Republic was created. Unfortunately, with minimal structure, it did not last. Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor shortly after the creation of The First Republic. Overall, for the next seventy years France rotated between a monarchy and an empire. The Third Republic was created before World War II and lasted until 1940, but also failed because it was geographically surrounded by all autocracies. France and Germany tried negotiating with Adolf Hitler using democratic principles, which ended up leading them into World War II. After the collapse of The Fourth Republic, The Fifth Republic created by Charles de Gaulle was successful in that it combined all elements of liberalism.

Traces of Democratic Peace Theory could be seen among relations between Germany and France. France and Germany’s relationship after World War II began the process of economic interdependence. These developments led to the establishment of the European Union (Rear, 2013). France’s current President is Emmanuel Macron. He was elected after his socialist predecessor decided not to seek a second term. The Government system in France consists of the President, Prime Minister, Parliament (Senate and National Assembly), and the Judiciary Sector. Macron is a member of “Le Republique En Marche!”, this translating to “Onward!” in English.

The French economy is a successful free market economy. Currently there are several reforms underway in France. The government is trying to make several improvements. They are trying to boost economic growth, lower unemployment, improve public finances, and alter the public view of the labour market. One of the main goals of France’s government is to focus on increasing exports. Increasing exports would benefit France’s economy, but also promote economic interdependence. This is an example of how France uses liberalism domestically as well as internationally. Economic Interdependence is one of the main pillars of liberalism.

The European Union is one of the best representations of liberalism. There are currently 28 members of the European Union. After World War II, world leaders came together and created a system that mutually reinforced political, economic and social elements. The focuses of the approach were democracy, international organizations, and economic integration, the three parts of the Kantian Triangle. Together these work to promote peace. The European Union enforces a range of regulations, which is what continues to allow the organization to be successful.

Liberalism can be used to further explain France’s relations with other countries, particularly Lebanon. Lebanon is currently facing an economic crisis, and has been for many years. In April 2018, the international community gathered in Paris for the Conference for Economic Development and Reform through Enterprise (CEDRE). The purpose of this meeting was to help Lebanon raise funds for their economic reforms after their country was destroyed from the Syrian war (Oazzani, 2019). France provided a combined total of 550 million euros in aid (Fuentes, 2018). Lebanon won more than eleven billion dollars in aid from foreign nations in the form of grants and loans. The promised reforms included restructuring of the electrical sector and reducing the public deficit. Reducing the deficit will hopefully change the fact that Lebanon has one of the highest public debts in the world. Unfortunately, progression in the reformation of Lebanon’s failing infrastructure was stalled due to political instability. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al- Hariri failed to create his third government which led to delayed implementation of reforms. France is a major encourager for Lebanon to carry out their economic reforms and improve their infrastructure, but the promised reforms will not be easily carried out.

After finally creating his third government, Prime Minister Hariri is still struggling to modernize the infrastructure in Lebanon. Countries are extremely wary of the legitimacy of the promises made at the CEDRE. President Macron of France has an assigned diplomat in Lebanon to closely monitor the situation and reassure international supporters that the promises made at CEDRE are still achievable. The New York Times released an article on October 22, 2019 about Hariri’s call for help from international supporters. Massive protests in Lebanon have called for his government to resign. France encouraged the government to push forward. As France is closely monitoring developments in Lebanon they are paying close attention to the current peaceful protests. France has motivated Lebanon to continue to respect the Lebanese citizens’ right to protest. As Lebanon’s former colonial ruler, they still play a large role in the country’s politics (The Associated Press, 2019).

France utilizes liberalism principles in their approach to reconciling the economic disaster in Lebanon. President Macron recognized the strong support from the international community at the CEDRE held in his home country France in 2017. By hosting this conference in Paris, he facilitated peaceful interactions among many international countries and international organizations. The World Bank pledged to donate four billion dollars in loans over the course of twenty years (Perry, 2018). He promoted peace during the conference by reminding other countries how important it is to not watch another African developing nation fail. As Lebanon’s neighboring country Syria was in a state of war, they were also destroying Lebanese territory as well. Finally after the war was over, France encouraged other countries to recognize the opportunity to rebuild Lebanon as a peaceful nation. France led the way in the initiative to provide aid to Lebanon with their donation of 550 million euros. They continue to persuade other countries to continue supporting Lebanon during these tough political times. It is important for leaders not to remove their monetary aid in Lebanon, as it would retract any of the progress the country has made in modernizing the infrastructure.

It can be argued that France is attempting to constrain other leaders through political accountability. As they threaten to remove their aid, he is motivating them not to because if they did they would not be promoting world peace. The goal of peace in Lebanon is not a prediction to France, it is a possibility. Lebanon is also one of France’s largest trading partners, increasing its economic interdependence. If Lebanon can successfully reform its nation, other countries will want to form international trade agreements with them. Spreading economic interdependence will make it less likely to declare war on each other due to the risk of endangering world markets. While Lebanon is not recognized as a complete democracy, its system of government incorporates aspects of democracy. France continues to promote the spread of both democracy, and sustainable peace. By supporting the development of Lebanon and guiding the country based on democratic principles, it is a step in the right direction for Lebanon potentially becoming a democratic nation. The international system becomes more peaceful with the increase of democratic states.

Liberalism can also be used as an approach to explain France’s relations with Chad. A group of France’s armed forces intervened in Chad in 2018 to help protect against a convoy entering from the Libyan border. Authorities in Chad requested assistance in handling the situation. France launched two airstrikes after monitoring the situation long enough to see that the Libyan convoy was still advancing. Chad has been forced to carry out several different airstrikes against Libya rebels on many other occasions. The rebel group in Libya made it clear that their goal is to overthrow the Chadian President.

France’s intervention in Chad’s politics can be explained using liberalism principles. Democratic Peace Theory emphasizes that democracies do not go to war with other democracies. While sending air strikes is not an act of war, France’s launch of the airstrikes is consistent with this idea in that Libya is not a democratic nation. France launched the air strikes in an act of self defense on behalf of Chad. The dyadic principle of liberalism is also supported in this example. The dyadic principle argues that democracies are more peaceful with one another, but more likely to fight with any non- democratic state. France acted against the non- democratic state of Libya in this case. It can be argued that since Chad itself is not a democratic nation, it does not make sense why France would act on behalf of the nation. It has long been argued that France will never take a step back from politics in Africa (Nossiter, 2019). This furthers the argument that liberalism is an accurate approach to explain France’s international relations. Majority of African nations are developing nations. For France to continue to intervene in their relations shows their commitment to promoting democracy. Many nations in Africa are not democratic republics. People do not have a say in their elections which is why civil conflicts are more prominent in the African continent.

France always attempts to act through means of negotiation and compromise. In the case of Chad, after monitoring the situation with the rebel forces, compromise was not an option. France and Chad are both members of the United Nations, among other international organizations. Their membership in this organization could help to explain why they would assist Chad in suppressing rebel forces. France has committed to Chad in their fight against the growing chaos in Libya (Irish, Lough, 2019). It is an important question to ask why other countries do not get involved in instances like this. The best explanation as to why France would get involved is to increase democracy.

There is no single approach that could explain every decision a country makes. This is true in the case of France as well. Liberalism best explains France’s approach to their international relations, but it also fails to in certain instances. A different approach, such as realism fails to explain the behavior of France. Realism fails to explain the relations of France for several reasons. The realism perspective would suggest that France is constantly searching for power in order to secure their interests, and every country is an enemy of each other. Realists believe that war is inevitable due to the security dilemma, suggesting that every country is a threat to another. Immanuel Kant, a liberal institutionalist, believes that “natural processes of self- interest can impel rational individuals to bring about peace” (Russett, 69). Liberalism stresses that “despite their self- interest, humans are able to construct a more peaceful and harmonious society' (Russett, 69). Realism and Liberalism also have different restraints on the use of force. For example, liberalism supports democratic peace theory which defines the idea that democracies do not fight other democracies. In comparison, realism focuses on deterrence as a method of avoiding war, which is much more dangerous. While there are additional differences among the theories, overall realism does not apply its principles to France’s relations. France focuses on the quality of rational individuals and works to try and bring about peace.

Liberalism is a very distinct international relations theory in comparison to others. Its distinguishing aspects such as democratic peace theory and the Kantian Triangle are seen in France’s relations with other nations. Specifically in Lebanon and Chad, but the nation also applies liberalism to domestic politics as well. While other theories could potentially be used to explain France’s approach to its relationship with other nations, liberalism is most suitable.