France is chipping away at its diplomatic power by showing contempt for international law

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For France, ignoring and flouting international law as it is doing regarding the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu, is not only completely immoral and contrary to its diplomatic history as it has been defined for decades; it is also counter-productive.

Indeed, France owes its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council to General de Gaulle and its past power. As such, it has a particular role, one of exemplarity, to assume in the application of international law.

Today, it accounts for just 1% of the world’s population and 0.4% of the world’s land area. Returning to a system based solely on the balance of power in international relations, dismissing the equalising power that respect for international law represents, has led it (just like the United Kingdom) into a head-on confrontation, into a struggle for dominance with major powers such as the United States, China, and Russia, which structurally possess the attributes of major powers... A face-off so unequal that it is synonymous with subjugation. We have arrived precisely there.