France Seeks a Military Leadership Role in Europe

The European Amphibious Initiative (EAI) — comprising France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom — is holding its first "out of area" exercise in Senegal from Nov. 8-20. The EAI is meant to increase the Europeans' interoperability, but it also serves to boost France's profile as a European military leader. Germany is the European economic powerhouse but lags other countries — France included — militarily. Paris wants to increase its military leadership to balance Germany's economic and political weight.