France's Algeria Policy (1988-1995): Discourse, Motives and Means

France's Algeria Policy (1988-1995). Discourse, Motives and Means is a study of the French response to political upheavals in Algeria. The October 1988 riots in Algeria sparked off a fast-track democratisation process which was, however, rapidly brought to an end. Following Algeria's Winter 1991/92 first free parliamentary elections through which Islamism imposed itself as the most popular form of political change, a coup d'etat was staged by the Military -- the everlasting nucleus of power in Algeria. Since the coup d'dtat in January 1992 and the subsequent clobbering of the Islamist opposition, Algeria has foundered in a sea of violence. Until now, all political initiatives to bring back the country on the path of civil peace have failed.

Starting from the premise that France's long-run foreign policy objective has always been to preserve its rank as Algeria's "senior foreign partner", this study seeks
to determine what policy France implemented in order to achieve its goal in the context of Algeria's turmoil. The central finding brought to the fore in this thesis is that
France's Algeria policy was a shifting policy. From the 1992 coup d'dtat until the May 1995 French presidential elections, shifts in policy occurred both under the Left
and the Right. In successive stages, the socialist Cresson and Beregovoy governments as well as the right-wing Balladur government supported both "conciliation" and "eradication" in Algeria, which translated into varying degrees of support to the Algerian new rulers. France's shifts from supporting conciliation to backing eradication (January 1993) and from buttressing eradication to calling for conciliation (September 1994) are analysed in the light of three themes that permeate this study : discourse, motives and means.