Here's what I think: The French are not looking to change the status quo by itself. It's quite obvious that they have no intention of conducting large scale operations inside the Central African Republic. This is going to probably be a significantly different operation than Mali, where they mostly returned stability to the country by routing terrorist entities like Al-Qeada and the Tuareg back into their pre-intervention enclaves. Mali was in many respects a damage control mission following the spillover from Libya. Following the collapse of Gadhaffi, arms caches were seized and disseminated across the continent and surrounding region. Many of these weapons happened to fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda, which formed an alliance with the Tuareg and launched a major offensive in in the country. The internal situation is far more complex and difficult when compared to Mali. France already had significant [url=http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Mali.html#b]cultural, linguistic, and historical connections with Mali,[/url] the pillar upon which success in the country rested upon. These factors are much less prevalent in the Central African Republic (to my immediate knowledge). France doesn't want to see the Central African Republic become a failed state for two reasons. First, there would probably be a large influx of immigrants into surrounding nations. Mass immigration stemming from conflict is an extremely large but non-talked about threat to many nations globally. More immigrants=more instability. Second, there is the potential for the CAR to become a major breeding ground for jihadists. That's not good for anybody, especially neighboring countries which are most susceptible to spillover. Africa is the world's last major economic frontier. Nations around the globe have been pouring investment money into struggling nations, with the hopes of long term economic payouts. The [url=http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/Africa/0513pp_franceafrica.pdf]French[/url] have [url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/101245584]especially[/url] invested into [url=http://www.theforeignreport.com/2013/02/06/mali-why-france-is-fighting-for-west-africa/]West Africa[/url], where nations [url=http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/07/west-africa-sub-region-faces-multiple-political-and-security-challenges-srsg-djinnit/]homogeneously[/url] face many of the same problems. Chief among these problems are radicalism and sectarian, religious, and ethic conflict (as well as transnational crime). Thusly, what happens in one nation tends to spill over into other nations. By stabilizing the capital, thus decreasing the likelihood of the nation utterly collapsing, they are mitigating the affects of instability in the nation. And even while the CAR is not in West Africa, it is in the middle of an [url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/us-safrica-france-idUSBRE99D0BS20131014]arc of instability[/url] which threatens more regional conflict. Finally, it seems as if [url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/7/more-french-troopsdeployasclashescontinueincentralafricanrepubli.html]French[/url] leadership has preceded African impetus in forming an intervention task force. This is reminiscent of Libya, where French leadership ultimately led to NATO intervention. As for U.S. support, it seems as if the French are doing well on their own. We'll probably offer our strategic airlift capability, as will the British. I doubt the Canadians will be significantly involved. Given that UN missions are payed for by first world nations, but fought by third world hellholes, my guess is that future international involvement will in involve Bangladeshi/Indian/Pakistani/another large UN contributor.