End of the Year Issue
We Watch, We Feel, We Scroll: Susan Sontag’s ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ and the War in Iran
Images emerge from Iran with unsettling regularity: mothers mourning their children, bodies of Iranian martyrs killed by the IRGC during the crackdown in black bags, and quasi-apocalyptic scenes of explosions in Tehran. And then, just as quickly, they disappear from collective attention. Not because the suffering ends, but because the audience moves on.
April 12, 2026
Eulogy to Joy
In March 2025, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed to the world that American national-security officers discussed highly classified information in a group chat in which he was accidentally included. While American media focused on whether the leak risked American lives, European leaders got the chance to see how America’s most powerful talked about Europe behind closed doors.
April 1, 2026
Les Palestiniens l’ont-ils bien cherché ? La nécessaire chasse aux mensonges sur le conflit israélo-palestinien par Sandrine Mansour-Mérien
Tout le monde connaît les phrases toutes faites. On les répète comme si elles allaient de soi : « Civilisation contre barbarie », « Les Kurdes sont les pions des Occidentaux », « Les Arabes n’ont jamais accepté la modernité »… À force d’être répétées, ces formules finissent par s’imposer comme des évidences. On ne les vérifie plus, on les suppose. La question israélo-palestinienne n’échappe pas à ce mécanisme.
April 1, 2026
American Patriotism at the Milan Olympics in the Age of Trump
Every Olympic Games opens with a patriotic parade featuring all the athletes, each team entering the stadium waving their national flag. At the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, the United States of America athlete delegation was greeted with cheers and applause. However, when the cameras cut to Vice President JD Vance in the stands, the audience’s sounds of support quickly morphed into prolonged boos and jeers.
M-A-M-D-A-N-I
Zohran Kwame Mamdani is now the mayor-elect of the wealthiest city in one of the richest countries on Earth. His victory represents a political trajectory that is both atypical and deeply revealing of contemporary America. Born in an Ugandan-Indian family, raised between continents and immersed in environments rich in academic and artistic capital due to his parents’ careers: he occupies a complex place in the American social landscape. This matters, not as a critique but as context. His political language is formed by a democratic political economy and urban class analysis as much as by lived experience. You could hear it during the several live debates he participated in, in his cadence, see it in his references and definitely feel it in his policy design: it’s disciplined, detailed and unapologetically people-centered.
The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World
War is war. No matter when it starts, where it is or who ends up carrying its weight. I’m usually the first to argue that suffering should never be compared, but in the cases of Sudan and Yemen, comparison becomes almost unavoidable. Not to decide who suffers more nor to rank tragedies, but to confront the world’s selective outrage and the chilling apathetic silence that allows some wars to disappear from collective memory.
December 19, 2025
Les périls de la culture compétitive dans l’éducation
L’algorithme de Parcoursup, en faisant varier la valeur des élèves selon leurs résultats scolaires mais aussi en faisant respecter de critères spécifiques pour certaines filières, incarne parfaitement le paradigme compétitif qui structure le système éducatif français. Ce système éducatif repose sur une survalorisation de la compétition entre les élèves : les évaluations et classements sont constants, l’apprentissage coopératif absent.
De l’autre côté du mur : voix arabes face à la mission civilisatrice
Dans son discours d’investiture du 20 janvier 2025, Trump, acteur autoproclamé du renouveau civilisationnel, appelle les Américains à agir « avec le courage, la vigueur et la vitalité de la plus grande civilisation de l’histoire. » Et, comme tout bon pays prétendument civilisé, il faudrait évidemment montrer l’exemple à ceux qui seraient restés dans la barbarie, ceux qui n’auraient pas encore « évolué. »
November 13, 2025
Nostalgie historique et la génération Z: liaisons dangereuses ?
Des salles de bals étincelantes de Bridgerton à l'aesthetic Regency Core sur les réseaux sociaux, la génération Z semble obnubilée par une période qu’elle n’a jamais vécu. Comment peut-on expliquer cette fascination pour un monde vieux de deux siècles ?
#GenZ 212
When Luffy’s Jolly Roger was hoisted from Nepal’s Singha Durbar palace, it instantly became a symbol of something larger. Over the past few months, a wind of protests has swept across the globe. From Nepal to Madagascar, Kenya to Peru, Indonesia, the Philippines and Morocco: the youth, unwilling to inherit a broken system, have taken to the streets to prove that their future is daring and won’t be silenced.
November 2, 2025
Vlogging Live From Kabul: The Insights and Absurdities of YouTube Conflict Tourism
In the past few years, an increasing number of intrepid content creators are documenting their journeys to places of conflict. They acquire rare visas, hire local tour guides, and point iPhone cameras through the streets as they seek to capture the ‘real’ version of these countries—places whose very essence is often reduced to fearful headlines and apocalyptic imagery. This phenomenon, known as conflict tourism, ranges from visiting historically troubled areas to entering zones of active conflict, and has taken on an entirely new significance in the age of vlogging.
September 25, 2025
Calais: Between Migration and Solidarity
When I first announced to my family that I would be doing my parcours civique with Care4Calais, a British organization that provides non-food items to refugees, most of my relatives acted as if I was about to become a war photographer in Sudan. Despite them, I managed to not have any image of Calais in mind before actually arriving. So what was Calais really like?
April 30, 2025
Vivre la Guerre à Travers un Écran: la Bataille des Récits
Les algorithmes amplifient les contenus qui suscitent le choc et l'émotion, même si ceux-ci ne reflètent qu'une partie de la réalité. Ainsi, les zones de conflits moins spectaculaires ou celles qui ne répondent pas aux critères de viralité demeurent dans l’ombre.
April 30, 2025
A Hundred Years of Gatsby
Although more than a hundred years have passed since its publication, the recycling of this tale, the tale of “The American Dream” but also the tale of a life without love—the tale of a life full of yearning—continues to this day, even after the pages of Fitzgerald’s novel have been turned to their very end.
