By Jean Daspry, pseudonym of a senior civil servant, Doctor in political science
“Since we can’t change anything about the main thing, let’s take care of the accessory.” How better to summarize the dilemma of French diplomacy and UNESCO, in these times, than does Philippe Bouvard in his A thousand and one thoughts published in 2005? Instead of seriously questioning themselves in the face of a new world and new governance, they prefer to procrastinate, excelling in the practice of dead dog diplomacy over time.
It is well known that by playing with fire, we end up getting burned… and we no longer play any role on the international scene except that of useful idiot while others (China, United States and Russia) redraw the contours of the new international system[1]. This is the saddening situation we find ourselves facing at the end of 2025! While French diplomacy is in a state of brain death, UNESCO diplomacy is in a state of advanced agitation.
French diplomacy in a state of brain death
Table of Contents
How sweet it is to do nothing when everything is bustling around you. This could be the philosophy which underlies the action, not to say inaction, of French and multilateral diplomacy!
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French diplomacy is in bad shape
His megaphone diplomacy preaches in the desert. The warnings launched by Jupiter to the yellow-maned miscreant to involve Europeans and Ukrainians in the peace process have had no effect. The criticisms repeated ad nauseam of the governance of the tenant of the Kremlin by the husband of Brigitte Trogneux leave Vladimir Putin unmoved, or even return him to his rightful place in the concert of nations. The Macronian rantings on the two-state solution in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict leave the New York billionaire placid, who does as he pleases and sets up a sui generis process from which French and Europeans are excluded. The very diplomatic injunctions to rebalance bilateral trade declaimed by the little Gallic rooster during his recent visit to China fall on deaf ears whose name is Xi Jinping[2] and who has better things to do than pay attention to this nonsense[3]. Critics of Christophe Gleyzes’ appeal judgment are received in Algiers with contempt[4].
Multilateral diplomacy (universal or regional) is in as bad shape as the French
She helplessly witnesses the upheaval of the world of the 20th century and the recomposition of that of the 21st century.[5]. The least we are allowed to say is that she is a helpless spectator in the face of the standoff between the Americans, Chinese and Russians.[6]. Do we know what the very discreet Secretary General of the thing, the Portuguese, Antonio Guterres, is still used for? The part he took in settling the disputes supported by Donald Trump is an asymptote of zero. The UN at the end of the year 2025 looks exactly like the League of Nations of the years 1939-1940. She contemplates the trains passing without stopping in Manhattan. His army of useless civil servants is going around in circles. The same thing could be said of everything that revolves around the UN, at the forefront of which we can cite UNESCO, dear to the heart of the Great Nation due to its geographical location but which costs the taxpayer an arm and a leg.
In these lean times, why not take a rabbit out of your pocket, a trendy gadget to ward off bad luck and clear your conscience at little cost? This is indeed the case with the promotion of the very famous feminist diplomacy. A sort of joker for the unlucky.
Feminist diplomacy is in a state of advanced agitation
UNESCO struggles to exist due to lack of control over reality. She adorns herself with the trappings of virtuous feminist diplomacy.
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UNESCO diplomacy exists despite appearances
There is always something very important happening at Place Fontenoy in the heart of the very chic seventh arrondissement of the capital. Within UNESCO, an organization of the United Nations family, imagination has taken power for a long time. The most baroque ideas proliferate there amid the greatest general indifference while the world is faced with major challenges. Our compatriot, the very discreet Audrey Azoulay – who is completing two transparent mandates – has never taken the problem head on. She adopts the old adage, to live happily, let’s live hidden! What are we learning on the eve of the end-of-year holidays? Invitations are being extended to participate in a multilateral exercise of the highest importance, entitled:
« Café-Women
Being a woman, a woman and a diplomat: sharing of experiences and transmission.
Tuesday December 16: 6-8 p.m.
Bold city
9 rue de Vaugirard
75006 Paris ».
Mazette, this is serious!
UNESCO diplomacy raises the standard of feminist diplomacy
These invitations are launched by the French National Commission for UNESCO in partnership with the French Coordination for the European Women’s Lobby (CLEF). You should know that the French National Commission for UNESCO is housed in the premises of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs located on Boulevard des Invalides. “ The Commission pursues two main missions: to contribute to the strengthening of French, intellectual and programmatic influence within the international organization; promote the role of UNESCO, and its values, in French society. Created by a decree of August 2, 1946, this commission works in close collaboration with the various ministries »[7]. It is headed by a President, today a former French diplomat adept in feminist diplomacy and its work organized by a secretary general. If we understand correctly, it is thanks to feminist diplomacy that we are contributing to the strengthening of French influence in this thing. How ? For what ? We don’t know it, or at least we imagine it. Who are we kidding? The fate of women in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan… does not present the slightest interest to this commission which works in close collaboration with the Permanent Delegation of France to UNESCO. All this is pathetic and says a lot about the non-existence of French diplomacy in general and our diplomacy within UNESCO in particular. Judged in the light of its concrete results, it deserves to be downsized to lighten the weight of the abysmal debt of a France that is generous with the money it does not have.
What’s more, while we are told all day long that we must prepare for war and sacrifice our children, we learn that France is organizing a ministerial conference in Paris on October 22 and 23, 2025, devoted to feminist diplomacy![8] Who are we kidding unless we believe that feminist diplomacy is a branch of the diplomacy of coercion, the armed wing of French diplomacy? Historians will appreciate, when the time comes, its true value, this trinket of sonorous inanity that the external action of eternal France has become under the two reigns of Emmanuel Macron.
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Let’s kiss, Folleville!
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” (Winston Churchill). Today, the failure seems as fatal, even irreversible, for French diplomacy as for UNESCO diplomacy, the former having nothing else to do than to agitate and the latter to brandish feminist diplomacy, the emptiness of which we know. In the post-truth era, belief trumps the truth of facts. How can we describe our leaders of French diplomacy – at the Élysée or the Quai d’Orsay – as spectators of a world in total transformation and rising dangers, if not of modern-day Tartuffe? Their warnings, their perorations go unheeded. They don’t interest anyone. “ It is the reign of amateurism, improvisation and emptiness”[9]. In the final analysis, at a time when one world is fading and another is appearing, we could say, French diplomacy is dead, long live feminist diplomacy!
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The opinions expressed here are those of the author alone.
[1] Gilles Paris, Disappearance notice from the WestLe Monde, December 11, 2025, p. 31.
[2] Philippe Jacqué/Harold Thibault, Faced with Macron, Xi Jinping does not give up on UkraineLe Monde, December 6, 2025, p. 4.
[3] François Bougon, Macron smiles in Beijing but gets nothingwww.mediapart.fr, December 4, 2025.
[4] J.-FJ, Silence on the hostages? Let’s talk about it!The Chained Duck, December 10, 2025, p. 8.
[5] Alexandre del Valle, The new post-Western order. How the war in Ukraine and the return of Trump are accelerating the great geopolitical shift, The Gunner, 2025.
[6] Both Trump and Putin spit on Europe, The Chained Duck, December 10, 2025, p. 3.
[7]
[8] October 22-23, 2025).
[9] Gérard Araud, Lessons in diplomacy, France facing the coming world, Tallandier, 2025.
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