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Since their creation in the 1880s, holiday camps ('colonies de vacances') in France have experienced continued and increasing success. Organised for the most part by local associations or municipalities, they are structured and grouped into federations. A fact specific to France is that the French government took an active role in holiday camps from 1936 onwards. Contributing at first to the democratisation of leisure activities, they went on to become a real public education service after the Second World War, the State then setting up an effective subsidy and inspection system with respect to these camps. Within this context, holiday camps were also considered as important relays of France's foreign and colonial policy, due to their profound symbolic significance. Indeed, they portrayed a picture of a maternal France concerned with the well-being of its children and with national and international solidarity. Between 1945 and the mid-1950s, French holiday camps were then used to serve political and diplomatic agendas. Drawing on ministerial and audiovisual archives, this paper shows, in particular, that holiday camps were promoted abroad in order to further France's international influence, and were widely used to serve the policy established in French Algeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the Lomé Convention (1975) was signed between the European Economic Community (EEC) and 46 African Caribbean and Pacific States, the EEC member states had to deal with the African members of the Commonwealth. Among the Six France was in a peculiar position, wishing to maintain a special relationship between the EEC and the French-speaking African states and to enlarge its relations with other regions of the Third World. This article, based on an examination of the French Foreign Ministry Archives and the Papiers Foccart, aims to investigate the prehistory of the relations between the EEC and the English-speaking African states. It analyses the French role in the debate, outcomes and consequences of the first agreements signed by the European Community with Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. To this aim it will focus on the negotiations between the EEC and the African states, but also on the debate which took place in some international organisations on the Yaoundé Convention, in order to understand to what extent these discussions paved the way for the evolution of the EEC Development Policy during the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France and Europe today, claims arise defining so-called Muslim and European ‘worlds’ and labelling them irreconcilable. These claims ignore the intertwined history of France and North Africa. When the six founding members of the European Economic Community (EEC) signed the Treaty of Rome, French administrators still considered Algeria to be a constituent part of France, despite the ongoing war. The Algerian question was central to negotiations for the Treaty of Rome and during them, French officials attempted to inscribe Algeria within the founding documents of the European project through a policy of ‘Eurafrique’. Their partners, eager for France’s signature on the Treaty, accepted a vision of integrated Europe with borders crossing the Mediterranean. This decision raised thorny issues in the months and years to come, first in debates of how or even if the Treaty could be implemented overseas, then when independent Algeria attempted to define its relationship with the EEC. These episodes of negotiation and interaction reveal the centrality of the question of empire to the foundations of integrated Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the creation of the European Community, the Gaullist movement has never been united over the question of European integration. De Gaulle’s intergovernmental vision of the European project has largely been the dominant discourse. At times however, this narrative has been questioned—on the one hand by more supranational notions of European integration; and on the other by a more pro-sovereignty Eurosceptic discourse. Subsequently, in its various modern-day guises the Gaullist movement has faced a series of major internal divisions with regard to its position on ‘Europe’. This uncertainty has also manifested itself at the highest level as demonstrated by the changing discourse advocated by former French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. This paper analyses the internal tensions over the European issue within the Gaullist movement at elite level. It determines that despite Chirac’s and Sarkozy’s attempts to unite the party throughout their presidencies the Gaullist movement is far from having moved towards a united European stance. Accordingly, the authors identify that over the past three decades, it is possible to identify three distinct, and at times conflicting, Gaullist stances on European integration with which the party’s elites have vacillated, namely Euro-Federalism, Euro-Pragmatism and Euro-Populism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is provided to articles in the issue on theme of the relationship between France and Europe from the March 1957 Treaty of Rome through 2017 with topics, including European integration, French Algeria and the European Union (EU).

Studies of the relationship of political parties to the European Community/Union (EC/EU) increasingly use the perspective of ‘Europeanisation’ to measure such relationships. There is also a case, however, for looking at Europe from the perhaps narrower but no less necessary point of view of intra-party dynamics: in particular, what kinds of challenge does ‘Europe’ represent to party managers and how do they deal with it? By analysing the relationship of the Socialist Party to the EC/EU at three key moments in the history of European integration, the author identifies some common tropisms which continue to operate even as the effects of ‘Europeanisation’ increase. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two decades later, the Rwandan genocide has been broadly analysed and, to a certain extent, so has the French response to the genocide. Nevertheless, even though the literature covers extensivelyhowthe French executive responded to the genocide, it remains confusing when it comes to explainingwhyit responded in such a controversial way, since two—somewhat contradictory—accounts have been put forward. In order to address this lack of clarity, the article analyses these main accounts and concludes that they both present key weaknesses that prevent us from fully understanding France’s controversial response. Building on Prunier’s testimony, this article suggests a third explanation by arguing that the ‘Fashoda syndrome’ had a strong influence on President Mitterrand and should be taken into account more consistently, not only when studying the French response in Rwanda, but also Mitterrand’s foreign policy in Africa more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1958, Armand Gatti, on the brink of becoming a famous dramatist, took a trip to North Korea in the company of Claude Lanzmann, Chris Marker and Jean-Claude Bonnardot. This was the first visit to this country by French intellectuals. There, in the midst of a political crisis gripping the country, Gatti wrote the screenplay for the film Moranbong, directed by Bonnardot. In proposing to link a love story in North Korea through the eyes of a French journalist with the rehearsals for the Korean opera Chunhyang, Gatti created a unique film. In this film, which disappeared for many years because it was censored on its release, we find Gatti’s reflections on political regimes and human destinies, his will to invent a new role for the artist and for art, the influence of Sartrian and Camusian existentialism and his fascination for Asian arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an overview of the history of sporting relations between France and Algeria from the colonial period to the present, with particular reference to association football or 'soccer'. Simultaneously local and global, this most 'mediatised' of modern games is discussed as a privileged site for cultural and political exchanges between the two nations. Attention is focused on the contribution made by football to Algeria's struggle for independence, and the subsequent efforts by the new Algerian state to exploit the game's potential for internal legitimisation and external recognition. Central to the discussion are a number of iconic Algerian footballers, including Rachid Mekloufi and Rabah Madjer, together with the outstanding French player of Algerian descent, Zinedine Zidane. In conclusion, the social and political lessons of the home side's victory in the France '98 World Cup are considered, as are those of the problematic France–Algeria 'friendly' match of 6 October 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feeling of belonging to a diaspora is relatively weak among Algerians for at least four main reasons. First, during the Algerian war of independence Algerian migrants were divided between rival nationalist movements and traces of these divisions can still be felt. Second, the period of immigrant settlement is still relatively recent. The 40 years that have elapsed since independence do not constitute a sufficiently long time period for the development of a strong diasporic consciousness in France. Third, the Algerian minority in France is divided in numerous ways, such as between Arabic-speakers and Berber-speakers and between migrant workers living apart from their families and the young generation of 'Beurs' born in France of immigrant parents. Fourth, the deterioration of the political situation in Algeria since the late 1980s has blow n apart the relationship between the Algerian state and ordinary Algerians both within and outside Algeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers recent changes in France's assistance programme to black Africa. It looks at the historic logic underpinning France's aid policies and structures; examines the latest reforms; and attributes these to the election of a reformist socialist government, a favourable political climate, globalisation and the constraints of EMU. The main obstacle to reform is said to be President Chirac who remains attached to the old logic of French African relations. Ultimately, however, it is not the struggle between modernisers and traditionalists but pressures from France's African and European partners which will determine the future of French aid policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the foreign relations between France and Algeria from 1962 to 2002. Traumas, grudges and inequalities inherited from the colonial period the war for Algerian independence; Analysis of pertinent topics and relevant issues; Implications on the history of modern and contemporary France.

Discusses two books on the relations between France and Africa. 'La Francafrique. Le plus long scandale de la republique,' by F.X. Verschave; 'l'Afrique le fire la France.,' by J.-P. Gourevitch.