Washington has always ignored its allies to achieve its national interest
British analyst: The French are right about the American "betrayal", but this is not enough
America, Britain and Australia negotiated the submarine deal in secret.
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Macron and Australian Prime Minister after signing the submarine deal.
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The submarine deal between the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and the furore that followed in France, says two things about American power.
One is that the ability to build alliances gives the United States a vital advantage in the geopolitical competition with China, while Beijing has few true friends.
Washington's global reach is an integral part of a number of bilateral and regional treaties.
Yet this incident is also a reminder of how careless and callous the United States can be with allies.
Washington's postwar leadership is sometimes seen as the result of dreamy statecraft.
And there was already a measure of that in building an open international order after 1945. But to be clear, the United States has never shied away from selfishly pursuing its own interest.
The Bretton Woods institutions and the Marshall Plan served America's purposes before those of its allies.
Washington's retreat from the open economic order in recent years is easily explained: the gains that once accrued to the United States are now enjoyed by China.
US presidents have never bothered to offend friends.
The style of President Joe Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan was a small example.
NATO allies were informed rather than consulted about the withdrawal of US forces, and denied they had any role in the timetable.
Nor was the president sorry when it all ended in chaos.
France's anger from the submarine deal comes in several aspects.
Most obviously, losing a A$50 billion contract is a severe blow to its defense sector and an even bigger blow to industry pride.
By virtue of its insular territory, France is the European country with the most militarized presence in the Indo-Pacific.
It was building its own security partnership with Australia.
Okos - a tripartite security pact between Australia, the UK and the US - breaks all of that.
What is really worrying is Biden's "betrayal" of trust almost accidentally.
Washington's negotiations with Canberra continued for months.
It was kept secret even as the US administration encouraged France and the European Union to advance their efforts to counter the more aggressive Chinese stance in the region.
This is an outright lie.
The United Kingdom, which French President Emmanuel Macron has described as a vassal of the United States, has a long history of such cruelty.
The Dwight Eisenhower administration forced a humiliating withdrawal from Suez in 1956. A quarter century later, Ronald Reagan's friendship with Margaret Thatcher did not count when he brought up the issue of deterrence in nuclear arms talks with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
It is fair to say that France is currently in the difficult position of complaining about the pursuit of the national interest by others.
If the United States created the international system according to its own vision and interests, France sought to do the same through the process of integration with the European Union.
From the Elysee's point of view, the goal of "more Europe" has always been France.
Macron's biggest problem is that being right about American perfidy is not, in and of itself, an answer to anything.
He may see this incident as a catalyst for European "strategic autonomy", the core of French foreign policy since Suez.
This is a very logical project, which others should be involved in.
But if the conduct of Germany's election campaign is any guide, Europe's most powerful country has no intention of shouldering much of the continent's security burden.
Before Brexit shattered the European pillar of its foreign policy, the United Kingdom attempted to serve as a bridge between Europe and the United States.
France sought to build the European Union as a counterweight to American power.
The Iraq war - dividing Europe and forcing Britain to choose - showed that both strategies had failed.
Britain has now positioned itself as a flexible partner for Washington.
The rest of Europe continued to suffer from a dilemma.
You could try to play an equidistant game as is the case between China and the United States.
Or it can admit that when the choice is between US arrogance and Chinese hegemony, there is only one side they have to be on.
So Macron should wait, being right is not enough.
The collapse of the submarine agreement between France and Australia was expected
Australia's unilateral cancellation of its contract to purchase French submarines and participation in the "Ocos" security agreement constitutes a slap in the face for French diplomacy, which French diplomats have described as a "stab in the back" and "betrayal."
Although Paris may be shocked by this turn of events, it was expected to some extent, for several historical, cultural and diplomatic reasons.
Under this “decade of the century,” agreed between Paris and Canberra in 2016, France was to supply Australia with diesel-electric Barracudas for a total of €34 billion (A$55 billion) over 25 years.
For France, the goal was to develop a partnership with the largest country in the South Pacific, a partnership that was supposed to conclude a close and lasting agreement for half a century, thus strengthening its diplomatic and military network in a region of great strategic importance.
While this plan may have been wise (because it proposed a third diplomatic path to the region, free from Sino-American grip) and ambitious (because it gave France and Europe a renewed Indo-Pacific presence), there were nonetheless insurmountable weaknesses in the situation. The French led to the failure of this cooperation.
Britain has now positioned itself as a flexible partner to Washington, and the rest of Europe has been plagued by a dilemma.
• Philip Stevens, a writer specializing in international affairs
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