International Relations

A Sharp Right Turn Hubert Vedrine is a foreign affairs veteran, named conseiller diplomatique to French President Francois Mitterrand at the age of 34, and subsequently appointed Secretary General of the Elysee’s Presidential Office, by the Socialist, managing his policies from the Elysée Palace in Paris. For five years, Vedrine served France as foreign minister, under the ‘cohabitation’ government (1997 to 2002), led by the conservative head of state, Jacques Chirac, and the Socia ...

The Alliance of Sahel States (AES), created on September 16, 2023, brings together Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso under a mutual defense agreement. The signing of the charter relating to this alliance, which bears the name Liptako-Gourma, was followed by meetings and plans for initiatives that will push the new structure further towards statutes for the alliance, transforming it into a confederation. As an intermediate measure, the three states have already envisaged the creation of ...

Developing countries that identify themselves as parts of the Global South (GS) face a difficult task in making their collective influence felt in international affairs. They can achieve this goal only if they succeed in developing institutions to coordinate their policies efficiently around agreed agendas, in order to be in a position to negotiate more effectively with developed countries to reform the current international political and economic system. As a template they should l ...

Le 2 avril 2024, le nouveau jeune président du Sénégal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye prête serment, consacrant ainsi sa victoire dès le premier tour. Ce candidat issu de l’opposition remporte des élections marquées par une série d’évènements complexes, tels que la condamnation et l’emprisonnement d’Ousmane Sonko, une figure majeure de l’opposition, et le report controversé de l’élection par Macky Sall. La victoire de Bassirou Diomaye Faye démontre, selon certains analystes, une soif de cha ...

The writing of this Report started in november 2023 and benefited during six months from the quality of discussions in the Policy center. Paul Isbel, Professor at UM6P, was a relentless proofreader who generously brought his outstanding competence in economy and political economy. Stephen Gardner went beyond his role as linguistic proofreader and showed an admirable understanding of the substance at stake. Under the direct supervision of Professor Abdelaziz Aitali, the Economic Depa ...

Le pluralisme médiatique reste une question ouverte que ravive l'actualité géopolitique internationale. Des initiatives réglementaires telles que l'European Media Freedom Act, en Europe, ou des procédures judiciaires, aux États-Unis, interpellant la responsabilité des plateformes en ligne, témoignent de la reconnaissance croissante des enjeux. Elles soulignent également la nécessité de réfléchir aux mécanismes qui favorisent ou entravent le pluralisme médiatique, surt ...

Tanks Are Not Yet Deployed Containers are in place, razor wire and metal barriers, nine meters high. Dogs sniff for illegal intruders, spyware registers noise, alerting border patrol units to people approaching the border, trying to evade National Guard troops. Tanks, mind you, have not yet been deployedon the 1954 miles (3145 kilometer) border between Mexico and the U.S. Migrants who approach dare to pass through ferocious desert, climb harsh mountains, jump on freight trains pass ...

Breaking Bonds, Forging Alliances On January 28, 2024, the military leaders of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso declared their joint intention to exit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), presenting three substantial criticisms against the regional organization. Their foremost claimed grievance was that ECOWAS has departed from its foundational vision, implying that foreign influences have diverted the regional organization from its essential values to the detriment ...

L’actualité politique en Afrique est marquée par une série de ruptures qui fait écarquiller les yeux de certains observateurs. Une vague de coups d’État, le retrait de la France de certains pays du continent, la fin du G5 Sahel, la création de l’Alliance des États du Sahel (AES) et le disloquement d’une des Communautés économiques régionales (CER) les plus « intégrées » d’Afrique, la CEDEAO, sont des évènements, tantôt perçus comme une bouffée d’air frais et un espoir de renouveau a ...

La publication, le 13 mars 2024, d’un projet de décret portant expropriation de trois propriétés inscrites au nom de la République algérienne à Rabat, a été considérée comme une provocation et une violation du droit diplomatique par le gouvernement de ce pays qui a menacé d’y répondre par tous les moyens. Le 17 mars, la presse a publié des copies de notes du Consulat algérien a Casablanca, apportant la preuve que ce gouvernement était le premier à annoncer l’expropri ...

L’Alliance des États du Sahel (AES), créée le 16 septembre 2023, rassemble dans un accord de défense mutuelle le Mali, le Niger et le Burkina Faso. La signature de la charte afférente à cette alliance qui porte le nom du Liptako-Gourma a été suivie de rencontre et de projets d’initiatives qui poussent plus loin la nouvelle structure vers des statuts de l’alliance pour la transformer en confédération. Comme mesure intermédiaire, les trois États ont d’ores et déjà envisa ...

With the advent of social media more than a decade ago, and now with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, international security has become increasingly complex in terms of its cross-sectoral and transnational nature. Multilateralism as the only response to international security concerns is an outdated lens; multi-stakeholderism is the new fresh lens. -- At the Atlantic Dialogues Conference in Morocco in December 2022, one of the focus areas was on multilateral so ...

Heightened geopolitical rivalry has greatly complicated the challenges facing the Global South. Countries identifying with the Global South now have to deal with the long-standing problem of promoting changes in the current international political and economic system to better serve their development needs, while navigating the geopolitically driven fragmentation of trade and investment flows. Moreover, the strategic approaches that could be adopted to deal with those challenges are ...

Le contexte de tensions géopolitiques accrues et rémanentes que connaît le monde depuis quelques années, marqué par la dégradation des relations entre les États-Unis et la Chine, l'escalade des tensions à Taïwan, et le conflit entre la Russie et l'Ukraine, a engendré des répercussions majeures sur les politiques d'approvisionnement en minerais stratégiques et critiques de plusieurs États. Les récentes crises, notamment la pandémie de COVID-19 et le conflit en Ukraine, ...

The destruction of a vibrant and historic nation, sprinkled with color and culture, turned into a footnote of geopolitics. The more than 377,000 war victims disappeared from global headlines. The official fighting ended in Yemen on March 29, 2022. A ceasefire was declared by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the rebellious Houthis. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, praised “the wave of reconciliation” that swept across the region. The main foreign supporter of Yemen’s Houthi—Iran— ...

Following a fruitful and broad debate at the 2023 Atlantic Dialogues, Alec Russell, foreign editor of the Financial Times, asked a deep and globally-relevant question: Can democracy survive 2024? With 70 states having elections this year, it is a fundamental question. After some decades of continuous expansion of democracy worldwide, as shown by the V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, there now seems to be a downturn. Is this a surprising trend or is there an underlying risk in all dem ...

The strategic significance of the southern Atlantic is growing, driven by two underlying dynamics. Firstly, we have seen the geostrategic capabilities of the southern Atlantic states and their inhabitants strengthen and the value of their strategic assets rise, despite lingering internal vulnerabilities and frequent instability, often caused by the northern Atlantic and, on occasion, Eurasia. Secondly, the way in which the southern Atlantic states are pursuing and exploiting the pot ...

In realist terms, the Southern Atlantic represents a natural partner for the powers of Eurasia—now grouped together in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)— especially for those that are, or could be, BRICS members. Pan-Atlantic cooperation is inherently of strategic interest to Eurasian countries because of its potential implications for the ultimate size of the BRICS Plus, for the degree of implication from its members in the Southern Atlantic, and for BRICS strategic goals ...