International trends / Book
Continuar la historia
03/12/2008 By Hubert Védrine
Continuar la historia and the Informe para el presidente de la República sobre Francia y la globalización are the fruit of Hubert Védrine’s experience, travels and reflections. In spite of the differences between the two countries, the challenges that globalisation presents for Spain and France are comparable in many senses.
In Continuar la historia, the author considers that history continues with its challenges. In the face of the emergence of a multipolar world, Westerners will defend their interests and values badly if they base their actions on irrealpolitik, which has been their source of inspiration for twenty years. By examining the realist bases for a better world, Védrine underlines Europe’s expectations with regard to the EU’s future administration and seeks to define what a Europe would be which finally knew “who it is and what it wants”.
Europe should undertake to become a pole regulating globalisation, along with the US, in which the latter would give up its domination and the Europeans their irresponsibility. Together, Europe and the US ought to invent a smart form of realpolitik in order to manage new relations with emerging countries, and their transformation from predator economies into countries characterised by ecological growth.
The Informe para el presidente de la República sobre Francia y la globalización results from a question put by Nicolas Sarkozy to Védrine immediately after being elected. “Should France modify its position with regard to globalisation and its foreign and defence policy?”, the president asked. Védrine replied yes to the first point, but no to the second.
Keywords
European Union France Globalization United StatesBio author: Hubert Védrine
Hubert Védrine (1947) worked for 14 years with François Mitterand at the Elysium and he was Minister of Foreign Affairs.
