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Frankly, speaking to French officials in recent months on issues ranging from Syria to the Gulf and Libya, I sense that some in Paris may have concluded that trying to materially involve Germany over regional partners (such as UAE) may just not be worth the head and heartache.

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Jean-Marie Guéhenno

@JGuehenno

· 20h

1/ #Libya should be a shared security priority for Europe but instead it is poisoning relations btw France & Germany. France has genuine & legitimate concerns that the deployment by Turkey of Syrian militias in Libya will significantly increase risk of terrorism in Europe.

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2:30 PM · Jan 30, 2020Twitter Web App

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That's not to say that France is *right* in its analysis or preferred courses of action, but that it has simply exasperated of trying to have discussions that could lead to substantive commitments. Neither soft backchanneling nor "constructive confrontation" appear to work.

Tobias Schneider

@tobiaschneider

20h

And while German buy-in may be valuable on the European stage, it will invariably be materially insignificant. On the Sahel, which divides Berlin, one official smirked that France'd rather lose the full German contingent (our largest deployment) than the Estonian Special Forces.

Tobias Schneider

@tobiaschneider

20h

Among friendly diplomats, there's a lively discussion about the merits and demerits of actually putting Berlin on the spot on key questions. Some fun anecdotes that I'll try to shoehorn into an upcoming piece.

Tobias Schneider

@tobiaschneider

20h

I'm also tired of framing this as miscommunication or institutional mismatch when there's such obvious capacity gaps.

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and

I am afraid you may be right on French low expectations vis-a-vis Germany on crisis management. Not worth the hassle in many cases.

Wolfram Lacher

@W_Lacher

15h

Agree re: Sahel. But in Libya, French policy since April 2019 (and arguably before) has not been about crisis management but about thwarting crisis management. It has been, and still is, about giving war a chance.