1 Bush Versus Kerry in French Cyberspace Paul C. Adams Department of Geography, UT-Austin, November 2004 ph. 512-232-1599; paul.adams@mail.utexas.edu [unpublished draft: do not copy or quote without the author’s permission] The Internet functions as a political forum--a space in which conflicting ideas about policy, governance, ideology and personal identity are discussed and debated. This paper considers the way the virtual space defined by the Internet was appropriated by French citizens to discuss and debate the US presidential election of 2004, and how French users of cyberspace engaged with each other’s ideas in several online virtual spaces. I demonstrate the ability of the Internet to promote the diffusion of certain constructions of the United States, American society and American leadership in particular. I also demonstrate contested perspectives on French society, culture, policies and leadership. This task reflects the firm belief that America’s greatest weakness is its inward orientation, a stance which coexists with military expansionism, bravado and opportunism. By publicizing and in effect amplifying foreign perspectives of the US, by “looking at them looking at us,” it may be possible to postpone the clashes that are inevitable between what Hubert Védrine calls the hyperpuissance (hyperpower), meaning the US in the Post-Soviet era, and the rest of the world.