In his New Year's Day address this year, president Jacques Chirac talked about the "grandeur de l'état français". It's a concept the French worry about a lot: they are determined to hang onto their position in the world.
That determination shows itself most clearly in the success the French have had in winning influence in international financial organizations. Three of the IMF's last four managing directors have been French. Jean-Claude Paye runs the OECD. And, at the EBRD, the disastrous Jacques Attali (who left in disgrace after his lavish spending was revealed), was replaced by another Frenchman, Jacques de Larosière. De Larosière moved from being governor of the Banque de France, which he'd joined after a spell as managing director of the IMF.
Not a bad tally. France is, after all, only the world's fourth largest economy. The Americans have placed considerably fewer of their nationals in international institutions. And the Germans and Japanese are almost entirely absent. The only Japanese to head a major world body is Hiroshi Nakajima, president of the World Health Organization. And the Germans? The only senior German we can recall in such a job was Ernst-Günther Bröder, president of the EIB from 1984 to 1993.