France is frequently a puzzle to Americans. The country’s behavior strikes Americans as unpredictable and designed to annoy, without being effective. As with all perceptions — the French view of Americans as simplistic cowboys, for example — there is an element of truth. French behavior is not always predictable in a particular case, but there is a geopolitical driver to French policy that allows the nation’s apparent inconsistencies to be understood, if not always reconciled. France’s history and geography have taught its people contradictory lessons. On one hand, the French deeply fear being controlled by greater powers; on the other, they have neither the weight to single-handedly counterbalance a power like the United States nor the effortless capability of the coalition building needed to create a sustained alternative to greater powers. They therefore operate in contradictory ways over time and at different levels. This behavior derives from geopolitical realities and not, as many Americans might believe, out of sheer malice....
