"Evolving French Perceptions of Transatlantic Relations"

[From the Introduction]. Ever since the first attempts to organize a European community in the early 1950s, France has been the most consistent and persistent of all European countries in seeking to advance its view of transatlantic relations. French governments of all political persuasions have seen the transatlantic partnership as excessively dominated by the United States and have sought to compensate by strengthening--under one model or another--the European component of that partnership. From the late 17th century until 1940, France was one of the world's major powers-- at the very least a pares inter pares. It was, therefore, not easy to get used to military and economic dependence on (and the consequent political subordination to) the United States. From the perspective of all postwar French governments, American "hegemony” has been the problem, and a "partnership among equals" has been the goal