Wait, France still has an army??

Yes it's true, the French not only have an army, they are not afraid to use it.  French troops are currently on the ground in Mali where they are fighting rebels who many analysts say are linked to Al Qaeda in North Africa.

In many ways this military action is a double win for the French government--they get to show their resolve against Islamic extremism and they get to help out an old French colonial possession.  Indeed, President Hollande's once abysmal approval rating has rebounded as a result of the French intervention, with 75 % of French citizens supporting the military action.  In this way, it seems President Hollande has hit on the same issues that former President Sarkozy used to gain popularity, but has approached them in a fundamentally different way.

Sarkozy targeted Islamic "extremism" within France, focusing especially on how the attire of Muslim women, and the problems associated with the unemployed youths of the suburbs were an affront to the Republic.  Hollande is focusing on self-professed Islamists who seek to overthrow the Malian government.  This threat is external to France (unifying the nation), and it presents a more real and present danger (although the danger is external). Likewise, Sarkozy also placed maintaining strong relations with the former French colonies at the center of his foreign policy, but he did so without renouncing the many of the problems associated with French colonial rule.  Sarkozy refused to apologize for the atrocities committed during the war with Algeria (although he did say the atrocities of the war committed by both sides were bad).  Hollande, on the other hand, is combining French influence in its former colonies with a repudiation of the dark side of colonialism.  For example, he traveled to Algeria during its independence celebrations and officially apologized for the massacres during the war and the "suffering the colonial system has inflicted."
It is important to note that both issues push very important buttons in the French electorate, each President has used those issues in very different ways to increase their popularity.
In other news, the Die Welt article about student loan debt in the U.S. that I was interviewed for has been published and can be seen here if you're interested (it is in German).