The subject of this research is the impact of NATO membership on the security policy of the Republic of France. Through this paper, an attempt was made to analyze changes in French foreign and security policy after 1958, the French abandonment of the common command structure of NATO in 1966 and its re-integration into NATO in 2009. Based on its national interests, France positioned itself in NATO differently from other members due to disagreement with the decision-making procedures at the strategic level, which significantly influenced the French security policy and national security system. With the establishment of the Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle became the president of France, who decided to withdraw France from NATO's joint command structure due to disagreement with NATO's decision-making procedures at the political and strategic (military) level. Becoming a nuclear power in the early 1960s, France further justified its abandonment of NATO's integrated command by the need to keep its nuclear arsenal away from NATO's influence in order to preserve national sovereignty and the ability to act independently. Despite this decision, France never completely renounced the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, both politically and militarily. Military cooperation between NATO and France continued, mainly due to fears of a possible invasion by the USSR. Military cooperation continued even after the collapse of the USSR and became more and more intense through the participation of French military forces in the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Kosovo, which led in 2009 to the formal return of France to full NATO membership.