France

France, officially the French Republic, is a sovereign state comprised of territory in Europe and overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine River to the Atlantic Ocean. France shares a land border in Europe with Spain, Andorra, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium and close maritime borders with the United Kingdom. Due to overseas territories, France also shares a land border with the Netherlands in the Caribbean and with Brazil and Suriname in South America and close maritime borders with Canada.

## **History**

### **Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries**

France was a member of the Triple Entente when World War I broke out, alongside other major powers, Russia and the UK. A small part of Northern France was occupied, but France and its allies emerged victorious against the Central Powers at a tremendous human and material cost. In 1940 France was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. Metropolitan France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and Vichy France, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, in the south, while Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London. On 6 June 1944 the Allies invaded Normandy and in August they invaded Provence. Over the following year the Allies and the French Resistance emerged victorious over the Axis powers and French sovereignty was restored with the establishment of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF).
France was one of the founding members of NATO and attempted to regain control of French Indochina but was defeated by the Viet Minh in 1954 at the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became independent nations although Vietnam faced a bloody civil war that would involve the United States for more than two decades before finally unifying. Only months later, France faced another anti-colonialist conflict in Algeria. In 1958, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, which included a strengthened Presidency. In the latter role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the war. The Algerian War was concluded with the Évian Accords in 1962 that led to Algerian independence.

In the context of the Cold War, de Gaulle pursued a policy of "national independence" towards the Western and Eastern blocs. To this end, he withdrew from NATO's military integrated command, he launched a nuclear development program and made France the fourth nuclear power.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries France has been at the forefront of the development of a supranational European Union, notably by signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, establishing the Eurozone in 1999, and signing the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. France has also gradually but fully reintegrated into NATO and has since participated in most NATO sponsored wars.

France was also involved in peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Chad and Mali.

### **Intervention in the Middle East**

In 2014, France joined the United States and several other allies in intervening against the Islamic State in Iraq, by contributing 30 aircraft to the battle in Iraq. In 2015, France joined the intervention against IS in Syria, joining the US in bombing runs against strategic targets in Syria. In March 2016, NATO began preparing to launch an invasion of Libya and Syria to root out IS, an operation France contributed troops to.

In April 2016, NATO begun an aerial assault on Libya, striking both IS and Libyan Dawn targets across the country, as preparation for an international invasion. Egypt and Tunisia began an invasion of Libya to eliminate targets across Libya, with NATO air support.
France contributed advisers and troops to the War against ISIS, led by the United States and Turkey.

### **Intervention in Algeria**

*See Full Article: Second Algerian Civil War*

In June 2025, Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Algeria declared the foundation of the Algerian People’s Islamic Liberation Army (APILA) to overthrow the Algerian government to unite the country with the rapidly expanding North African Caliphate. French President Marine le Pen, was originally opposed to any kind of intervention in Algeria, believing it was not within France’s national interest. However, the French Foreign Minister, Matthias Fekl, protested that if France were not to intervene, then it would have to deal with the tide of refugees fleeing the oppressive Islamist regime centered in Cairo.

On 28 June, France, along with Spain and Italy, deployed 8,000 troops to Algeria to support the government in the civil war. French forces were involved in the First Battle of Algiers, defeating the APILA forces, now supported by IS troops from the NAC. The French troops refused to take part in a government defensive operation in Bejaia, stating that French troops can only defend the capital city. During this time, anti-war protests began in France and other European cities demanding that European troops withdraw from Algeria. In France, protests turn violent and it is believed that APILA and IS agent provocateurs infiltrated the protests.
In February, 28 Spanish troops and two Italian troops are killed, leading to Spain and Italy recalling their deployment to avoid more casualties. French troops remained in Algeria until May when President le Pen demanded the troops be recalled, stating that “the Parliament’s plan to stem the potential tide of refugees has failed”.

### **Withdrawal from the Eurozone**

In August 2025, Serbia and Greece announced the annexations of Montenegro and Macedonia respectively. As a result, both countries were ejected from the European Union, causing euro markets around the world to lose their value. Due to this economic uncertainty, Marine le Pen announced that France would unilaterally withdraw from the euro. She announced in a press conference that “the euro prevented France from returning to robust growth as the Great Recession faded into memory and the ejection of Greece from the European Union speed up the euro’s collapse.”

French withdrawal from the Eurozone caused for other unstable economies, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and eventually Italy to also revert to their original currency.

## **Government and Politics**

The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic who is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years), and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister.

The French Parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly and a Senate. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the government, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms, and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.

French politics were characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centered on the French Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centered around the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). However, since 2017, the second largest party in France has been the National Front, led by incumbent President Marine le Pen.

### **Foreign Relations**

France is a member of the United Nations and serves as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto rights. It is also a member of the G-7, G-30, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the Chinese dominated Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. As a significant hub for international relations, France hosts the second largest assembly of diplomatic missions in the world and the headquarters of international organizations including the OECD, UNESCO, Interpol and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

Postwar-French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership of the European Union. Since the 1960s, France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU. France is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, but under President de Gaulle, it excluded itself from the joint military command to protest the special relationship between the United States and Britain and to preserve the independence of French foreign and security policies.