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Don't underestimate the French: President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes that reintegration into NATO can prove yet another power play for his fast-filling book.

In a long-anticipated move, Nicolas Sarkozy last week announced France's formal intention to, as he put it, "reintegrate [into] NATO."

In so doing, the French president has opened himself anew to charges that he is trading France's treasured autonomy for an alignment with the United States. But domestic critics may have it backwards: Sarkozy’s real goal all along has never been to simply draw Paris closer to Washington, but rather to use warmer relations as one of many tools to increase France’s influence.

The French have had a half-in, half-out relationship with NATO since 1966, when then President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from the alliance's integrated command structure, thereby reclaiming what he called "the complete exercise of its sovereignty." France had been progressively extricating its forces from the NATO chain of command for most of the previous decade. The final decision was triggered primarily by changes in the United States' doctrine of nuclear deterrence that raised fears in France of being drawn into wars not of its choosing.

But because France never actually left NATO, "reintegration" is a somewhat misleading term. France is currently the fourth-largest contributor of both money and troops deployed in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Over the past 10 years, France has increasingly rejoined the political and operational components of the alliance, currently sitting on 36 of the organization's 38 committees. Until now, however, it has remained outside the permanent military command structure, meaning that it holds none of NATO's permanent commands and does not participate in the strategic planning that goes into operational deployments. That absence is precisely what the announced move will remedy.

Sarkozy's decision is part of a broader shift toward reaffirming France's place in what he calls the "family of the West" -- a project he began upon taking office in May 2007. In concrete terms, that has meant a more vocal opposition to Iran's nuclear ambitions, a recommitment to the NATO war effort in Afghanistan, and demonstrations of French solidarity with U.S. objectives in Iraq.

All of those initiatives have generated charges of a pro-American alignment. But with his NATO shift, Sarkozy has fractured a long-standing domestic consensus over France's national security posture. Summed up by former Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine as "friends, allies, non-aligned," France's stubborn insistence on its autonomy and liberty of position in matters of national security confounded U.S. expectations throughout the Cold War and aroused suspicion in its aftermath. But for the French, it has been a source of national pride, creating a self-image of occupying a unique place in the West and the world. To be sure, France has always had its "Atlanticists" who favored a closer relationship with the United States. But in a country famous for its celebration of contrarianism, it was a position that bordered on the unseemly.

The announcement has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. Ironically, the socialists who in 1966 opposed De Gaulle's decision oppose Sarkozy today for reversing it. Even the centrists are opposed, as Mouvement Démocrate leader François Bayrou articulated in an interview with Le Figaro. "We're renouncing our singularity, the sign of our independence that gave France an identity in the concert of nations," he told the newspaper. "In accepting integration, France is amputating a part of the credit she enjoys with the rest of the world, with Africa, with the Middle East."

These more predictable adversaries have been joined by Gaullist parliamentarians from Sarkozy's own Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. Party luminaries and former Prime Ministers Dominique de Villepin and Alain Juppé are among the many who contend that NATO reintegration will limit France's cherished freedom of action.

Sarkozy has dismissed the suggestion, maintaining instead that by joining the command structure, France will increase its influence within the alliance. "We don't have a single military post of responsibility. We don't have our say when the Allies define the military objectives and means for the operations in which we participate," Sarkozy said, describing the status quo in his speech formalizing the move last Wednesday. "In concluding this process, France will be stronger and more influential. Why? Because those who are absent are always wrong. Because France must codirect, rather than submit."

By fully joining NATO, Sarkozy also argues, France will have more opportunities to influence the alliance's strategic vision at a time when the Afghanistan mission is testing its sense of purpose. Significantly, among the commands France is rumored to have secured is the Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for future planning in doctrine and operations. By integrating other commands at a staff level, it will also be able to contribute to mission planning to a greater degree.