Watch Bernard Kouchner, France's minister of foreign and European affairs, discuss the situation in the Middle East and the merits of multilateral diplomacy in solving global conflicts.

French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Bernard Kouchner speaks about the foreign policy challenges of the United States and Europe.

Listen to Bernard Kouchner, France's minister of foreign and European affairs, discuss the situation in the Middle East and the merits of multilateral diplomacy in solving global conflicts.

Video highlights of a CFR meeting with Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister.

Philip Gordon’s article discusses France’s new foreign policy under the pro-American President Nicolas Sarkozy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has wowed U.S. conservatives in his first months, but recent moves with Libya and on European finances could sour the affair.

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes his party's striking victory in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday will provide a strong mandate to govern and seal his ideological win over the French socialism.

Report from the Washington Institute that considers the possibility that the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France may usher in a less accommodative EU policy towards Hezbollah. The report says that Sarkozy appears to see Hezbollah in a different light than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. In a September 2006 closed-door session with Jewish leaders in the United States, for example, Sarkozy reportedly referred to Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization"—a sentiment unlikely to be stated by Chirac. During last summer's war between Hezbollah and Israel, Sarkozy defendedIsrael's right to defend itself against an organization he described as the "one aggressor" in the conflict. He also stated that France should have committed troops to Lebanon more quickly during the war.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s election as France’s new president prompted talk of a golden age in U.S.-French relations, but experts advise caution.

Serge Schmemann of the International Herald Tribune says Nicolas Sarkozy’s triumph in the French presidential elections represents “a mandate for change.”

CFR's Célia Belin discusses the recent French presidential debate and the challenges, persistent unemployment and security issues, facing the candidates.

The French presidential race between socialist Segolene Royal and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy is so close that a televised debate could be the deciding factor.

A deeply divided electorate in France on Sunday set up a classic second- round battle between socialist Segolene Royal and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Charles A. Kupchan, CFR’s top Europe expert, says Nicolas Sarkozy “is in pretty good shape” for the presidential runoff and it remains to be seen if Royal can cut substantially into the centrist vote to emerge victorious.

Charles A. Kupchan, CFR’s top Europe expert, says the French presidential election kicking off this Sunday is “one of the most open in modern French history. It’s anybody’s to win.”

Three new candidates—and one familiar spoiler—are trying to impress a skeptical French public as they compete to succeed a weakened Jacques Chirac.

This paper from the German Marshall Fund of the United States looks at the troubled tripartite relationship between Poland, France and Germany. The paper says this unstable relationship – the so-called ‘Weimar Triangle’ – has made it difficult to coordinate relations between the three countries, but notes that recent meetings have seen leaders of the three countries put contentious issues aside and concentrate on finding solutions to outstanding problems.