Here, John Keiger examines the subtle forces that have shaped France's international relations, from material aspects such as geography, demography, and economics, to more abstract features of France's national identity such as the notion of state and the impulse to spread French culture. The first study of its kind in English, the book is divided into thematic chapters that include discussions of how foreign policy is formulated and executed, the nature of strategy and defence, France's allies and adversaries, cultural diplomacy, and an assessment of French espionage. A final chapter...

This pioneering work is the first biography for thirty-five years of one of France's foremost modern statesmen. Based on considerable new archival material, it sheds light on the origins of the First World War, the post-war peace settlement, inter-war international finance, as well as the feminist and animal rights movements in France at the beginning of the twentieth century. Raymond Poincare is a subtle and fascinating portrait of this most prominent, yet most elusive, of European leaders.