Discussion by French officials on the role of NATO

This thesis analyzes the political discourse of Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, and Emmanuel Macron on NATO's role in relation to European defense. The aim of the thesis is to identify, analyze, and interpret the roles that Presidents Sarkozy, Hollande, and Macron construct for NATO in their discourse using discourse analysis with computer assisted content analysis. The ontological framework of the thesis is social constructivism. The method used combines elements of qualitative and quantitative analysis of political discourse. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first, theoretical-methodological part, presents social constructivism, political discourse and its examination, methods of discourse analysis and the research procedure. The second, empirical part, presents the research findings in the form of discourse genesis, divided into three chapters according to the presidents. The final chapter discusses and presents the various roles that NATO is constructed to play in the presidents' discourse. The results show that none of the selected presidents reject NATO's role in relation to European defense, and NATO is considered relevant. However, each president had a different understanding of the form and content of NATO's role. President Sarkozy emphasized the complementarity between NATO and European defense. President Hollande presented NATO as a space for building European defense, and President Macron initially emphasized compatibility and later complementarity of NATO with a strong European defense, aiming to achieve European strategic autonomy in the long term.