French strategic thinking today swings readily from self-satisfied inertia through fatalistic conformity to irrational alarmism. What has happened to the clear-sighted self-sufficiency which allowed the French to maintain their sang-froid, even in difficult times? It is the same story with the terrorist challenge, the Iranian nuclear issue and the debate on the Turkish question. Let us look at the current situation through new strategic spectacles (with corrective, or politically ‘incorrect’ lenses?) and let us try to stay within sensible strategic limits.