NSA Espionage in France:
'Like Spying on Family Members' (Le NouvelObservateur, France)
"The espionage affair will be quickly forgotten because it
isn't very important. States will spy on one another, but if France and the
United States have always had complicated relations, now, common interests,
both economic and on counter-terrorism and security, are extremely strong. This
issue is secondary. Yes - it's annoying that someone close to you is spying,
but we spy even in families. You may call the French reaction timid, but I
would say it is realistic."
--
Philippe Moreau Defarges, Foreign Affairs Adviser to
the French Government
Philippe Moreau Defarges, a frequent foreign policy adviser to the French government, thinks the controversy over NSA surveillance in France is much ado about nothing.
To Philippe
Moreau Defarges, the French reaction to revelations
of American espionage in France is simply unrealistic.
Philippe Moreau Defarges is a French
political scientist, and one of the country's leading global affairs analysts.
He is a frequent foreign policy adviser to the French government, a researcher
at the French Institute of International Relations, and a lecturer at the
University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Sciences Po
Paris, and the Institutd'EtudesPolitiques de Paris.
On
Monday, based on documents from former analyst Edward Snowden, Le Monde revealed that the U.S. National
Security Agency has been conducting massive espionage on the communications
French citizens. Philippe Moreau Defarges helps us
interpret the data.
Le NouvelObservateur: Why was there
such a timid reaction from Paris after revelations of massive American
espionage in France?
Philippe Moreau Defarges: One might find the French reaction to
be timid, but it isn't all that surprising. This form of practical espionage is
altogether common on the part of a great power like the United States. Particularly
in the case of a very worried power ... which seeks to
protect itself by all means possible.
The
practice of eavesdropping is not very respectable, but it is so common as to
provoke no particular reaction. And the second reason - this affair isn't that
important ... It may be somewhat upsetting for the French, but that isn't very
important at a time when Europe is in a very difficult position, and the United
States is tending to move away from Europe. This is not a priority issue.
Le NouvelObservateur: Is France
benefiting, too, perhaps, from this bugging? Is there a tradition of
collaboration in terms of information between Paris and Washington?
Philippe Moreau Defarges: I have absolutely no idea whether or
not France benefits from this monitoring. As for collaboration in terms of
information, one must distinguish between countries that are very close to the
United States, such as the United Kingdom, Israel, and Germany, from those that are
somewhat less close. France is not part of the first circle, and Paris has
always asserted its sovereignty vis-à- vis the United States, which is invariably a little uncertain
of the French and their unpredictability.
Moreover,
it must be understood that France has the means to achieve the same type of surveillance
- it is obvious that it does. We are inevitably moving toward societies of extreme
control. With the technical means we have, how will we deter states that want
to monitor everything they can surveil?
Le NouvelObservateur: Doesn't our
reaction have to be analyzed in light of the many common positions of Paris and
Washington on the international stage in recent months, in regard to Libya, Mali,
Syria ... ?
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Philippe Moreau Defarges: Yes, that, too, is true. France and the
United States are fundamentally in the same camp. The times of Charles de
Gaulle and the great quarrels of the 1960s are behind us. France has too many of
its own difficulties to distance itself from the United States. The espionage affair
will be quickly forgotten because it isn't very important. States will spy on one
another, but if France and the United States have always had complicated
relations, now, common interests, both economic and on counter-terrorism and
security, are extremely strong. This issue is secondary. Yes - it's annoying
that someone close to you is spying, but we spy even in families. You may call
the French reaction timid, but I would say it is realistic.
In
1981, when Mitterrand came to power, Reagan ordered the creation of a cell to monitor
France over the fantasy that the communists had come to power. This eventually
created a scandal in the press, but this, too, was quickly forgotten, and did
not prevented Mitterrand's France and Reagan's America from having excellent
relations.
