Over on ArmscontrolWonk they have been analysing the arc of crisis map from the recent French White paper on national security and defence. They’ve done a great job at distinguishing what all the shapes (originally plotted on the map by hand) mean:
Circles: Main naval areas of patrol/operations.
Dark stars: Bases belonging to the “Forces de souveraineté” category, on French overseas territories.
White stars: Bases on the Atlantic coast of Africa.
Grey stars: Djibouti and Abu Dhabi/UAE bases, on which the French forces will be relying more and more, due to the shift of priorities from Africa to Asia, also reflected in the arrow pointing to the Indian Ocean.
(Hat tip Guy de Loimbard)
Readers of GD will note how similar the French arc of crisis is to the arc of stability – made famous by Tom Barnett:
