What does it take to belong to a region and exert power over it? The scholarship on regional powers has elaborated sophisticated indicators to establish nuances of power, but the depiction of the region has remained vague. Most approaches are characterised by a narrow territorial interpretation that does not properly take into account power wielded by geographically distant actors. Using the case of France in Central Africa this article argues that a distant state can a) hold a dominant share of military, economic and soft power, b) use this power for hegemonic behaviour and c) be recognised as a leader in the region by both internal and external actors. The main specificity of distant actors as regional powers is the greater necessity for a legitimising narrative. France tackles this hurdle with the help of regional organisations that reproduce imperial structures. By holding the informal status of a quasi-member in regional governance structures, France participates in region-building processes from the inside rather than the outside.

属于一个地区并对其施加权力需要什么？关于地区权力的学术研究阐述了复杂的指标来确定权力的细微差别，但对该地区的描述仍然含糊不清。大多数方法的特点是狭隘的领土解释，没有适当考虑地理上相距遥远的参与者所拥有的权力。本文以法国在中非为例，认为一个遥远的国家可以 a) 在军事、经济和软实力方面占据主导地位，b) 将这种权力用于霸​​权行为，以及 c) 被公认为该地区的领导者内部和外部参与者。遥远的参与者作为地区大国的主要特点是更需要合法化的叙述。法国在复制帝国结构的区域组织的帮助下解决了这一障碍。通过在区域治理结构中保持准成员的非正式地位，法国从内部而不是外部参与区域建设进程。