Editing Foreign relations of France (section)

===Reputation ===

[[Sophie Meunier]] in 2017 analyzed the causes of decline in France's former reputation as a major player in world affairs:<blockquote>
France does not have as much relative global clout as it used to. Decolonization ... diminished France's territorial holdings and therefore its influence. Other countries acquired nuclear weapons and built up their armies. The message of "universal" values carried by French foreign policy has encountered much resistance, as other countries have developed following a different political trajectory than the one preached by France. By the 1990s, the country had become, in the words of [[Stanley Hoffmann]], an "ordinary power, neither a basket case nor a challenger." Public opinion, especially in the United States, no longer sees France as an essential power....[However in 2015 France] mattered in world environmental affairs with....the [[Paris Agreement]], a global accord to reduce carbon emissions.<ref>Sophie Meunier,  "Is France Still Relevant?." ''French Politics, Culture & Society'' 35.2 (2017): 59-75, quoting pp 61-62.</ref></blockquote>