France’s Nuclear Umbrella

The Financial Times reports:

rench Pres­id­ent Emmanuel Mac­ron has invited fel­low European lead­ers to dis­cuss whether, and how, his coun­try’s nuc­lear arsenal could be used as a deterrent against future Rus­sian aggres­sion.

But his allies may not like the lim­it­a­tions he may choose to keep on the force de frappe.

The idea of extend­ing the French “nuc­lear umbrella” to pro­tect other European coun­tries has taken on new urgency as US Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump has under­mined Nato and threatened to aban­don the role the US has played as Europe’s ulti­mate secur­ity guar­antor.

“There was never any request f