Menshakova D. France’s nuclear status as a factor of its public positioning in the Euro-Atlantic security environment

The dissertation thesis is devoted to the substantiation of the theoretical position on the possibility of using France’s nuclear status as a factor of its public positioning in the Euro-Atlantic security environment. The impact of France’s nuclear status on the foundations of its security policy and public positioning in the Euro-Atlantic security environment is comprehensively investigated in the research. The conducted study substantiates the theoretical and conceptual foundations of France’s public positioning in the Euro-Atlantic security environment; identifies unique features of its policy, formed under the influence of nuclear status; systematizes main factors of France’s strategic policy decisions in the current security situation in the Euro-Atlantic region. In particular theses includes analysis of the following: experience of France’s nuclear status acquisition and the process of its formation as a nuclear state; the origins of France’s nuclear strategy with attention to the peculiarities of the French concept of deterrence; legal framework governing the French nuclear status; the role of nuclear status in the 2017 presidential campaign; the role of nuclear status as an indication of military power; the particular importance of the economic component in the implementation of France’s nuclear strategy; the functions of nuclear status as a mechanism for realizing geopolitical interests of the French Republic; the Euro-Atlantic dimension of France’s nuclear strategy features; France’s position in the dissipative structure of NATO by using a synergetic approach; the relation between nuclear status’s protective benefits and the Euro-Atlantic security region’s balance.