Shapovalova O. The European Policy of France under Jacques Chirac Presidency

The thesis is devoted to investigation of the structure of the European policy of France under Jacques Chirac presidency by means of analyzing complex of interrelations between its conceptual foundations and practical institutional and bilateral mechanisms of influence employed for its realization. Research is conducted on the basis of social constructivist approach which led to elaboration of author's vision of the European policy of France as process of discursive construction, intersubjective affirmation and institutional fixation of fundamental ideas, concepts and principles aimed at positioning Europe in global system, establishing particular configuration of the European system of international relations and defining the place of France within its structure. According to this approach, key analytical category for understanding primary motivational driving forces of the European policy of France is the notion of French foreign policy identity. The grounds of French foreign policy identity are rooted in such perennial ideas as universal republican values, merging state and nation and the principle of political independence and are manifested in basic concepts of organization of international environment (the concepts of multipolarity and multilateralism at the global level and the concepts of Grande Europe and Europe-puissance at the European level).