French “Submarine” Diplomacy: French-Russian relationship under Macron’s Term

Since the Crimean crisis in 2014, tensions between Russia and France have grown steadily. Whether it be divergences in the field of security, international law, economy or energy, no solution emanating from "traditional" diplomacy has resulted in a concrete Franco-Russian rapprochement. This research focuses on the case of France, which uses an ingenious system to make progress on its foreign relation with Russia. This new phenomenon, which we call the "submarine diplomacy", in reference to a submersible that would act underwater to resurface only when its goal is achieved, combines the use of parliamentary diplomacy and cultural diplomacy. It gives promising results and could well become an essential complement, or the surrogate, of the "traditional" methods of diplomacy that we know today. This research aims to identify the actors of France’s cultural and parliamentary diplomacy, to understand how it works, the links which unite these two forms of diplomacy and finally to know if this “submarine diplomacy” will be the driving force in the French-Russian foreign relation. We explain this phenomenon through a system of participant observation, social network analysis and through interviews with actors of the French diplomacy, both traditional and public.