Failed Thinking: François Mitterrand and Rwanda (1990–1994)

Abstract: The Duclert Report asserts that primary responsibility for French policy in the Rwanda crisis rested exclusively with President Mitterrand despite serious mistakes by his entourage. His decisions to maintain and intensify French engagement stemmed from what the report called “failed thinking,” a view of the crisis rooted in an outdated neocolonial ethnic vision of violence between African peoples and in the influence of Maurrassian thought on Mitterrand during the 1930’s. Unable to adapt his thinking after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Mitterrand worried about German reunification, rejected using force against Serbia as Yugoslavia broke apart, and was distrustful of Anglo-Saxon power and what he saw as a threatening anglophone surge in francophone Africa that he factored into policy decisions concerning Rwanda.