Abstract: France is currently one of the leading players in the global arms market. Its MIC is capable of producing various types of military technology, while its order portfolio amounts to billions. The government plays a major role in this trade and treats arms sales as a valuable political vector. This article expands on the essence of French approach towards arms exports and explores its key principles and priorities. The work touches on such characteristic traits as regional sales structure. The work is structured on case-study methods, with utilization of comparative historical analysis. It starts with general positions relied upon by the French government in its arms exports policy, then their practical implementation on the example of Near East Arab countries (the region with the most of its MIC clients). The authors determined that French policy regarding arms exports is based on at least two theses: 10 arms exports is an additional source of revenue for the military industry of the country; 20 sales of military technology can help establish relations with other countries.

Abstract: The role of France and its foreign policies in one of the most volatile regions of the world, the Persian Gulf, constitutes the subject of this study. The authors discover the interests which the Fifth Republic pursues in the Gulf, spotlight the advantageous and vulnerable aspects of French diplomacy in the said field. The study covers the dominant French perception of the Gulf as a "crossroads space", strategically crucial for the security of France and Europe a whole. The major competitors of the Fifth Republic which challenge France in order to preserve their interests are also defined. Methodologically, the study's foundation is laid by the principle of regionalism - a way of defining a region as a self-sufficient unity with its defining specific traits. This explains the fact that the article does not only study the relations between France and each single country of the Gulf, but rather its approach to the region as a whole. The foreign policy of the Fifth Republic is studied as an integrated entity, combining military and non-military leverage. The method of comparison allowed to weight the resources of France against the potential of competing players. Concluding their analysis, the authors would define France as a "transitory" player in the region. French diplomacy has several channels of influence in the Gulf area, but it lacks the resources to establish itself as an undisputed leader (while pushing aside other major forces, such as the USA).

Abstract: The article analyzes the modern form of France’s military presence in Sahel-Saharan region - the operation Barkhane. The main attention is given to the purpose and the tasks of the operation, the involved forces and finances, and foreign policy motives which France uses to justify its military involvement. Special attention is given to the weak aspects of the expedition - from the obscure situation with  funding and equipment, able to operate in the desert conditions, to the unreliability of the five Sahel countries. The authors also study the variants of the operation Barkhane termination, which can be considered by the French government. To study all the aspects of the problem as a single set, the authors use the SWOT-analysis method. Based on this method, the authors successively study the strong and the weak aspects of the operation, the possibilities and external threats. The conclusions are combined in a summary table - an analytical extract of all the key factors promoting or hampering the maintenance of France’s military presence in the region. Such point of view turns the study into the applied research, and bears out its scientific novelty against the background of other scientific work describing the situation in Sahel in general rather than focusing on the problems and prospects of the particular operation. The authors conclude that Sahel campaign remains quite unsuccessful for France: its negative internal and external effects are still stronger than the positive ones. In attempt to improve the situation, the current authorities try to realize the only scenario acceptable for them: to gradually withdraw the French army from Sahel in exchange for strengthening military forces of the local states.