Une certaine idée de l'indépendance

France is back in NATO's integrated military command. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who made it a personal mission to lead it there, argues it will boost French influence in the world. His critics across the domestic political spectrum argue it will diminish French independence. Many military analysts argue it will have no discernable effect on NATO at all. There is truth in all these assertions.

Full NATO membership undoubtedly makes plain France's primary loyalties, perhaps making its diplomatic wiggle-room that little bit narrower. But gone are the days when claiming that France could lie 'between East and West' made any sort of sense, or when Paris could project significant solo influence abroad anywhere except pockets of Africa. A seat at the highest tables of military decision making in the developed world will give France the chance to help shape NATO's future direction. It might also make an integrated EU military structure - arguably Sarzoky's true design - a little more likely.

But NATO's capabilities have not been augmented: France has made no fresh troop commitments to match its renewed political will. Nor has France's reintegration made NATO's future path any clearer: a new Strategic Concept is long overdue, with the last one unveiled as long ago as 1999. Political commitment to the transatlantic alliance is to be undoubtedly celebrated. But NATO's successes in the short run are dependent on the forces it can actually commit; its relevance in the longer term on a vision of what to do with them.