On 3 July 2006, the French Senate published a report by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Armed Forces Committee on the management of African crises, summarising the French position in this area and setting out the fundamentals that will determine French doctrine in the years to come. In a context marked by an assertive African Union and the European Union’s growing involvement, this document explains France’s change of course in its relations with a continent which has greatly changed since the end of the Cold War.