Edouard Balladur was Prime Minister of France from 1993 to 1995. Current French President Nicolas Sarkozy had been his budget minister and spokesman, and they are still close; Sarkozy rose within Balladur's wing of the Gaullist movement.

Balladur argues in his new book, "For a Union of the West", that, for the sake of the shared human values of the Western countries, and in face of the rise of China, the return of Russia, and global terrorism, it is necessary to unite Europe and America organically. It was written in the International Herald Tribune that Balladur expresses in his book the "underlying premise" of Sarkozy's policies. The U.S. edition is about to be released; review copies will be available.

Balladur is an independent thinker and writer as well as a political figure. He has been a leader within the Gaullist movement for many decades. He is credited with having drawn the mainstream of French Gaullists back into a pro-European Union stance and into abandoning anti-American attitudes.