"France can help us more than we think," writes Walter Russel Mead looking through the history of the rocky U.S.-French relationship to provide context for the current state of the alliance.

Amel Boubekeur writes that the controversy surrounding Nicolas Sarkozy's comments on the full-face veil in France has excluded the people it most concerns - the women who wear it.

France's move to rejoin NATO's integrated military command structure reflects a shift in French strategic thinking about new reliance on allies and diminished projection of unilateral power abroad.

As France returns to NATO's integrated military structure, it's time for the alliance to undergo a long-delayed transformation, Benoi D'Aboville says.

A profile of ETA, a terrorist separatist group operating in the Basque regions of Spain and France.

Max Boot discusses David Hackett Fischer's latest work, Champlain's Dream.

Listen to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde discuss the financial crisis from the European perspective, and suggest policy options for a coordinated response by Europe's four largest economies.

With financial firestorms erupting left and right in Europe, the global credit crisis takes a new dimension. Analysts say it might be time for coordinated interest rate cuts.

The French president did more than anyone expected regarding Russia—but there's much more to be done.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded in forming a union of Mediterranean countries, but the bigger challenge of pushing through meaningful policy change lies ahead.

The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has pushed for his country to rejoin NATO's integrated military command in the hopes that it would help establish a capable European Security and Defense Policy. Ronja Kempin writes that this would only be possible if the French were to use their EU Presidency to link NATO and the EU by creating an operational civil-military EU planning and conduct capability closely linked to NATO's capacities.

Paris Bureau Chief Christopher Dickey reports on the success of small and highly professional French combat units that have coordinated with military forces from different countries in varying alliances-the kind of fighting Western armies are called on to do more and more. The French do it well and it is key to their growing-perhaps pivotal-role in NATO that has changed dramatically since the end of the cold war.

Michelle Smith and Charles D. Ferguson evaluate Sarkozy's nuclear deals in the Middle East.

Walter Russell Mead argues that “a Sarkozy who overcomes the transport unions will take a decisive step toward the modernization of France.”

France’s new president has ambitious plans for the country’s economy. But to push through reforms, he will have to face down nationwide strikes.

Charles A. Kupchan, CFR’s top Europe expert, sees major improvements in the mood of U.S.-Europe relations, but, he cautions,  there are only “slim pickings” to show on policy issues like Iran and Afghanistan.

This article discusses Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency, calling him "The Hyperpresident."

News that Cecilia Sarkozy is divorcing her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, is all over the U.S. press. But there is another woman in the Sarkozy constellation who matters more than Cecilia. She is Christine Lagarde, the 51-year- old French finance minister.  At a recent meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations, Lagarde outlined her plan to cut marginal taxes on labor, lower the tax rate on investors by boosting research tax credits, lower the share of citizens' total income that can go to income taxes to 50 percent or less, and end a requirement that all patents be translated into French. Amity Shales writes that Lagarde is the one most likely to seduce investors away from the U.S. and to France.