For the way France handles its Muslim minority at home is linked with its relations with Muslim states abroad.
The subversion indictment is dropped, but he must still face trial on a lesser charge, of damaging the name of the state abroad, for which the maximum prison term is three years.
His fame is such that Secretary of State Powell may well turn out to be treated as a head of state abroad, and nearly the same way at home.
But if we're not at war with their leaders, should other peoples' lives matter to us? Don't we need to tend to our own weedy democratic gardens, and lean on states abroad more for what they can do to cooperate on global peace and security than for what they're doing to their citizens at home?
As Reuters reported: Once driven to near irrelevance by the rise of Islamic State abroad and security crackdowns at home, al-Qaida in Yemen now openly rules a mini-state with a war chest swollen by an estimated $100m in looted bank deposits and revenue from running the country's third largest port.
Here's how Julian Borger, the Guardian's diplomatic editor, sees the role of the ambassador: "Apart from the obligatory binge consumption of great piles of Ferrero Rocher nutty chocolate balls, an ambassador is supposed to represent the interests of his or her state abroad, and be a channel of communication between governments and, ideally, peoples.
For many Iraqis the pact is "a necessary evil," said Laith Kubba, who served as a spokesman for the Iraqi government in 2005 and now is the senior director for the Middle East at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that supports efforts to build democratic states abroad.
Commenting on the ruling, Straw, who is one of the respondents in the Belhaj claim, said: "This judgment is about some important points of law, related to how far it is possible to bring into a court process in the UK actions of sovereign states abroad.
May not the sovereign lay claim to them and employ them in fleets and armies, to increase the dominions of the state abroad and spread its fame over distant nations?
In addition, others claimed that the alleged massacres by Portuguese military forces were fabricated to tar the reputation of the Portuguese state abroad.
