This is an excerpt from an interview with the French Mid-East scholar Gilles Kepel:

Q. What is your advice for the next president of the United States? A. After Iraq, it is clear that American military might is no longer a sufficient gateway to power. America has to work with its allies. That is one of the great lessons of a post-neocon world. A few years ago, Condoleezza Rice said that in the Middle East, the Americans will do the cooking and the Europeans can do the dishes. Can you imagine the national shame for the French, who are so keen on gastronomy, to have America — the nation of McDonald’s — insist that they will do the cooking? That was hard to swallow. But in all seriousness, Europe needs to get back in the kitchen. America can’t do it alone anymore.

But the Middle East isn’t the only place where France sees an opening for global leadership. Today we have this lovely piece in the FT of Nicholas Sarkozy boasting about how he “soothed Putin’s rage.” Among other comments (including an anecdote about how Putin wanted to hang the Georgian president “by his balls”), the French suggest that the EU needs to be represented by a heavyweight political figure rather than the rotating system of presidents. Looks like someone is getting back into the kitchen…