Benjamin Haddad on Submarine Contracts and French Anger
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
France is mad. More specifically, France is mad about Australia reneging on a deal for French submarines and opting to go instead with an American contract. It's all part of AUKUS, a new trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that was announced two weeks ago. France recalled its ambassador to the U.S. and otherwise expressed dismay at the development.
Jacob Schulz sat down with Benjamin Haddad, the senior director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, who is an expert in European politics and transatlantic relations. They talked through the French reaction, what might have caused it, and what it all means for the future of transatlantic relations and U.S. strategy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | We are 10 months into the Biden administration and clearly we see that something's not |
| 0:38.6 | completely right with transatlantic relations. |
| 0:41.0 | There's two ways to think about it. |
| 0:43.0 | Either we say those are accidents because we still don't have a US ambassador to Paris, |
| 0:50.0 | the EU to NATO or to Berlin. |
| 0:52.4 | There's a lot of really talented individuals that have been nominated for this position, |
| 0:56.1 | but unfortunately haven't been confirmed yet. |
| 0:59.0 | But the truth is I don't think this is only about staffing position, this is only about |
| 1:05.3 | a better coordinating message. |
| 1:07.7 | I think there's something more structural going on, which is that the US does have shifting |
| 1:12.3 | priorities. |
| 1:13.3 | That Europe is less central to the US global outlook than it used to be and that this does |
| 1:20.4 | demand on Europeans to step up their efforts. |
| 1:24.3 | It's time to have a frank and honest conversation among allies. |
| 1:27.9 | I'm Jacob Schultz and this is the LawFair podcast September 27th, 2021. |
| 1:35.0 | France is mad. |
| 1:36.5 | More specifically, France is mad about Australia reneging on a deal for French submarines |
... |
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