France's Dilemmas in the Indo-Pacific: It’s Hard to Be the Third

Relying on its Indo-Pacific possessions, France under E. Macron seeks to form a “third way” regional coalition project in the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific region, designed to counterbalance the influence of the USA and China in the region. Nevertheless, France faces serious obstacles on its way. The process of mental construction of the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific space in the minds of the French authorities has not yet been completed. The existence of “fragments of the empire” and a network of partnerships with regional states help France to maintain a presence in the region, but the lack of clarity in understanding the goals and objectives of the emerging coalition and the insufficiency of economic, political, and military resources to French ambitions seriously complicates France’s policy in the Indo-Pacific. The crisis events of 2021–2022 are forcing to look for new options for solving the strategic enigma.