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Rap seems to attract the worst of both worlds, awfully behaving artists and their near-blind cult following. The most despicable behavior can be forgiven so long as the musician continues to produce good music. Hip-hop fans have ease separating the rap from the rapper it seems, but this can set a dangerous precedent for the future. < Back Separating the Rap from the Rapper Pracheth Sanka February 28, 2025 Certified Lover Boy, or Certified Pedophile? This was the question fans of the rapper Drake had to ask themselves last summer. American rapper Kendrick Lamar popularly uttered these words during his and Drake’s widely publicized feud in early 2024. Lamar levied heavy accusations against the worldwide superstar , insinuating that Drake, or at least that members of his entourage, are sexual predators. While his claims are not yet fully verified , there remains select evidence to back up Lamar’s claims, like when Drake kissed an underage fan at one of his concerts, even after confirming that she was just seventeen. Still, even after these claims surfaced and being embarrassingly outrapped by Lamar, Drake’s superfans remain loyal to him. As an admirer of hip-hop, watching the “beef” from an outside perspective was a glorious experience. The clever wordplay and production of a song like “ Meet the Grahams ” satisfied the musician in me, and Drake’s humor on “ Family Matters ” made me audibly laugh, as he wittily struck back at Lamar’s assertion that his racial ambiguity precluded him from using a certain racial slur, the n-word. But the rivalry also highlighted a troubling pattern in the rap community: the blind adoration for the superstars. Drake, despite the alarming allegations and real-life instances of pedophilia, remained the year’s top-performing rapper and is arguably as popular as ever. If you look at his subreddit and all over Instagram reels, you can find avowed enthusiasts jumping to defend his honor and legacy as one of hip-hop’s “Greatest of All Times.” Even Lamar is not immune to this phenomenon; en route to his Grammy near-sweep and Super Bowl headline , accusations of his domestic abuse emerged from the Drake feud. This cult-like following, the unconcerned attachment to our favorite artists, is a worrying trend, one that has grown over the years in the hip-hop sphere. Formerly known as Kanye West, Ye’s narcissistic and arrogant behavior at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was cause for concern, yet his fans remained more or less supportive of his music at that point. Now, nearly sixteen years later, some of those same fans keep him in high regard despite his anti-Semitic and, to put it very, very mildly, politically incorrect turn. It seems astounding that even with his—and other rappers—persistently deplorable behavior, they can maintain large followings and even grow in popularity. These instances of course take us back to the age-old question, can we separate the rap from the rapper? Part of the issue lies within rap’s inherent relatability. While most may not connect with the sometimes grandiose and braggadocious rhymes, hip-hop’s roots are in the stories of inner-city neighborhoods, often giving a voice to the voiceless youth and marginalized who listened to it. As the genre evolved, so did its subject matter. Rappers began to speak about their mental health struggles and personal battles, something that struck a chord with many avid rap fans globally. Take XXXTentacion, who before his untimely death in 2018, released songs that talked about suicide, depression and heartbreak. Some of his hit songs, written when he was just in his late teens, include “ Everybody Dies in Their Nightmares ” and by far most popular “ Sad! ”, both of which talk about the rapper’s fight with suicidal ideation. His youth, relatability and talent propelled him into mainstream stardom, where he gained cult status and where he now remains one of the most listened-to artists even seven years after his death. But this popularity stands in contradiction to his often deplorable behavior. He was an admitted abuser who physically assaulted his pregnant girlfriend and he reportedly stabbed nine people. His connection to his fans and other musicians, as well as his early passing, seems to have given XXXTentacion’s legacy a shroud of innocence, hiding the dark past that mars it. Many other rappers can play on this relatability factor to conceal their misdeeds. The aforementioned Ye does this exceptionally well. While his current musical output is fraught with the use of artificial intelligence and controversial lyrics , his music of old gave listeners an insight into his upbringing, bridging themes of class, love and faith. His production prowess also lends to his status as another one of hip-hop’s greatest. This greatness has in many ways overshadowed his rampant anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and racist behavior. Many fans still lay in wait, hoping his new projects will be a return to his prior merit, especially after their disappointment with his last two endeavors, Vultures 1 and Vultures 2. While some have jumped ship, his cult status maintains many of his faithful who seem to willingly ignore his peculiar behavior. But sometimes, it has little to do with the rapper’s perceived greatness or approachable lyrics. It's just that the artist has made good music and the perceived injustice is not deemed to be bad enough. Travis Scott is a prime example of this phenomenon. Known for his spacey and production-heavy songs, he is a hit-maker who regularly performs in front of sold-out crowds. One of these sold-out performances, the 2021 Astroworld Festival, turned out to be a dark stain on his record, as the overcrowded swarm of concertgoers began to collapse , leading to the deaths of ten people and the injuries of many more. While the incident was not entirely his fault, the rapper caught criticism for continuing to perform despite the visible conditions of the crowd and for his later response to the tragedy. Since the incident, Scott has released a best-selling record and embarked on the accompanying best-selling tour, indicating that his irresponsible and erratic behavior surrounding the Astroworld tragedy was just a small blip in his rap career. Clearly, even the loss of life does not deter the most ardent of rap fans. Rap seems to attract the worst of both worlds, awfully behaving artists and their near-blind cult following. The most despicable behavior can be forgiven so long as the musician continues to produce good music. Hip-hop fans have ease separating the rap from the rapper it seems, but this can set a dangerous precedent for the future. It’s already been seen with the recent arrest of artist A$AP Rocky, who is going to trial over allegedly firing a gun at a friend. Facing 24 years in prison, I’ve seen many fans proclaim dissatisfaction with having to wait that long for a new album of his, rather than voice distaste for his assault charge. Whether those comments are said in jest or not, this tacit acceptance of shameful behavior can enable even worse actions from some of our favorite stars. This endemic issue will inevitably grow larger as the genre continues to rise in popularity, and fans will have to ultimately decide whether they will stick to choosing the rap, or have the courage to ditch the rapper. Photo credits: Super 45 | Música Independiente at Flickr

< Back Turkey Inches Closer to Landmark F-16 Acquisition By Yasmin Abbasoy January 31, 2024 The unending odyssey of the F-16s has perhaps been the most salient conflict in U.S.-Turkey relations in recent years. President Erdoğan’s 2021 request to purchase 40 of these jets along with a number of upgrade kits for its existing fleet introduced a significant point of leverage to the traditionally strained relations between the two states – one which has been maneuvered to apply to almost every aspect of foreign policy since. Recent dramatic developments in global politics have also drawn the uneasy allies closer in some arenas and further out in others. A common interpretation of the Turkish request is that it was made as a sort of last-resort bid for U.S. loyalty – a final chance for the U.S. to step up as Turkey’s most important ally, and the endmost bulwark against the culmination of a potential Turkish pivot to Russia. The concept of a F-16 sale did after all materialize as a reaction to Turkey’s ejection from the F-35 joint fighter program, a network of U.S. NATO allies which have been funding the development of the new-generation planes with the eventual hope of integrating them into their defense apparatus, which came about as a result of the purchase of the Russian S-400 system on Turkey’s part. The justification for this purchase, which triggered a harsh round of sanctions, was U.S. reticence on the transfer of the F-35 planes, mostly in reaction to Turkey’s aggressive conduct in Cyprus and Greece. The delay in the F-16 sale did not truly materialize in a turn eastward for Turkey, mostly due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Erdoğan did, however, take a more subdued stance on Russian aggression than many of its NATO allies, keeping comparatively closer ties with Putin that allowed Turkey to host potential peace negotiations in 2022. Furthermore, Turkey has kept itself relatively well-integrated with Russia, as demonstrated by the significant increase in trade between the two countries post-invasion. Given the outsized presence of Russia in the U.S.-Turkey relationship, it is fitting that Russia would be the nation to indirectly provide Turkey with its most important bargaining chip vis-a-vis the United States. The invasion of Ukraine brought the concept of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strength and unity to the forefront of the global political consciousness, which contributed in large part to Finland and Sweden applying for membership. Potential members must be approved by all existing NATO nations, as happened to Finland. Sweden, however, was a tougher sell: it had an unofficial arms embargo on Turkey and had previously provoked ire from Turkey on its allegedly permissive attitude towards the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it sees as a separatist terrorist organisation. Using these justifications, Turkey has been able to delay the ratification of Sweden’s membership indefinitely, dealing an important blow to the conception of a strong, united NATO that the U.S. has been central in promoting. Significant progress has recently been made. In light of security guarantees from Sweden, the Foreign Commission of the Turkish Parliament has approved the membership bid. This means the ratification is now able to be put to a vote in the assembly, in which Erdoğan and his allies hold a majority. Afterwards, Erdoğan must sign the bill into law in order to end a full 19 months of continuous delays to the process. Erdoğan has, since the beginning of the process, been very careful in emphasizing the role of the F-16s in the ratification procedure–the ratification is widely interpreted as a form of concession to the United States, one which deserves some sort of recompense. It was not, however, the end-all of this diplomatic snag until very recently. The past few weeks have seen a revealing shift in Turkish rhetoric regarding the potential sale: officials have always been quick to point out their discontent with what they have seen as an unfair conflation between the ratification and the F-16 deal on the part of the Biden Administration, with Erdoğan himself calling the rhetoric “deeply upsetting.” The Department of Defense has been forced to clarify that no such linkage between the two topics has been officially acknowledged. The beginning of December, however, saw Erdoğan tying progress on the ratification to the F-16 sale, mentioning his expectations of further steps from the Biden Administration in exchange for his own work in the Turkish parliament. Biden has consistently been very supportive of the sale, having already unofficially informed Congress and expressing an intention to complete the sale repeatedly. The primary obstacle is the attitudes of key figures in Congress, who have been characteristically reticent about supplying Turkey with more weapons. Key members of the committees engaged with foreign affairs work in both the House and the Senate have cautioned that the approval for Swedish membership will not be enough for Turkey to secure the jets it has been seeking for so long, which has been a major point of concern for Ankara. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have more than sufficient basis for their worries, however, as Turkey’s recent military maneuvers have done little to endear it to the Americans. In Azerbaijan, Turkey provided political support to the ethnic cleansing of the 120,000 ethnic-Armenian citizens of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, which had been situated within Azerbaijani borders in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This put it in direct opposition to the US and other Western partners, who all roundly condemned the events. In Northern Syria, Turkey has been battering civilian infrastructure such as power stations and hydraulic plants in response to a terror attack in the vicinity of the National Assembly which was claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Turkey has also targeted the Syrian Defense Forces, U.S. allies which are considered to be linked to terrorist organizations by Turkey. Furthermore, Turkish action close to a U.S. base in the area resulted in the unprecedented downing of a Turkish drone. Turkey has also had a historically strained relationship with Greece, having an established record of invading Greek airspace with political motivations and the eventual goal of normalizing its unique and expansionist conception of maritime borders. As Congress seems unwilling to be persuaded on the matter, Erdoğan has pivoted to place even more importance on the ratification process as a large concession on the part of Ankara. If Washington responds favorably to these developments, the long-debated F-16 sale could finally materialize, marking a new chapter in the complex dynamic between the two nations.

How the repatriation of 17,000 ancient objects can restore collective memory in a war torn country. < Back From Hobby Lobby to Iraq: The Historic Repatriation of Ancient Objects Restores Collective Memory By Lara-Nour Walton October 30, 2021 You may think that the connection between the craft store chain, Hobby Lobby, and the ancient Mesopotamian Gilgamesh Tablet could be tenuous at best. But you would be mistaken. In 2017, the Evangelical Christian owner of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green, opened the Museum of the Bible, a project that seeks to document the history of the Holy Book. Up until recently, many of the institution’s collections featured ancient Near Eastern art with questionable provenance. In 2010, Hobby Lobby combatted smuggling allegations after sneaking clay cuneiform slabs and seals (falsely labeled as Turkish tiles) into the United States. Green was warned prior to the purchase of these artifacts that they were most likely unlawfully looted from Iraqi historical sites. However, this warning went unheeded and Hobby Lobby became subject to a civil complaint. In 2019, one of the museum’s highest profile acquisitions, a fragment of the Dead Sea Scroll, was found to be a forgery. And now, the company is yet again under national scrutiny as it atones for its art-collecting sins in a major repatriation campaign. Amid power vacuums during both the Gulf War and American invasion, Iraqi museums, unexcavated caves, and monuments were looted. These thefts fueled the antiquities black market and resulted in the displacement of thousands of ancient objects. To return these objects to their motherland is, according to UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, a triumph “over those who mutilate heritage and then traffic it to finance violence and terrorism.” But, the return of these ancient artifacts means so much more. It represents the restoration of Iraqi history and the rehabilitation of our collective memories. Since August of this year, some 17,000 looted artifacts hailing from both Museum of the Bible and Cornell University collections have been returned to Iraq. Among the restituted objects is the storied Gilgamesh Tablet whose tumultuous journey back to Iraqi soil is emblematic of the unpredictable nature of antiquities trafficking. The clay fragment that recounts an ancient Sumerian tale of a bull-slaying demigod was stolen from the Iraqi museum during the 1991 Gulf War. UNESCO reported that it was then allegedly bought by a Jordanian antiques dealer, who passed it onto a coin dealer in London. Later, it served as the centerpiece of a Museum of the Bible exhibit in Washington, D.C. before being seized by homeland security agents. Today it resides in the Baghdad Museum. For many, the return of these ancient objects is not merely about “rightful” ownership. Rather, it signifies a reunion between Iraqis, whose heritage has been subject to immense erasure over the last three decades, and their cultural pasts. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Fareed Yasseen, described the repatriation as “a culmination of years of effort to heal Iraq’s cultural heritage wounds.” But many of these wounds cannot be mended. Several archaeologists discourage research into potentially looted objects because it deprives countries of origin from the opportunity to study the pieces themselves. However, the artifacts returned by Cornell University have been thoroughly studied without the consultation of Iraq. “We missed this great opportunity to study our tablets, our heritage,” lamented Hassan Nadhem, the Iraqi minister of culture, tourism and antiquities. “This is a kind of bitterness in our mouth.” Other wounds that emerged as a result of political instability and American neo-imperialism are manifested in the robust terrorist organizations that operate within Iraq. The destruction of Nineveh, the shameless rampaging of the Mosul Museum, and the dynamiting of centuries old Muslim and Christian shrines in recent years by the Islamic State are the most tragic cases of all. The art that was destroyed at the hands of extremists is irretrievable. Not even the repatriation of 17,000 Iraqi artifacts can restore the history that has been lost as a result of iconoclasm. The Gilgamesh tablet was returned on September 23, 2021. The repatriation was dubbed “a major victory” by UNESCO. But Hobby Lobby and Cornell’s return of these artifacts should not be viewed as a favor to Iraq or as some unforeseen joyous homecoming – it was simply a matter of national responsibility. The United States played an instrumental role in the destruction and pillaging of Iraq. During the 2003 invasion, U.S. soldiers were documented looting museums alongside disillusioned Iraqis. The de-baathification policies and America’s systematic dissolution of the Iraqi military directly led to the formation of the terrorist organizations that continue to chip away at Iraq’s already-dwindling cultural heritage. However, when news of repatriation campaigns hit media outlets, or when black clad men defacing lamassus appear on American television screens, it seems so far, as if the U.S. had nothing to do with the displacement of Iraqi objects or the subsequent defacement of ancient artifacts. But this is to be expected. Scholar Hamid Dabashi once said: “imperial cultures thrive on their intentional amnesia.” His words ring true as the U.S. feigns blamelessness, incredulity, or even sympathy when acknowledging the conflict in Iraq — a conflict that rages on as an immediate result of American disregard for the histories of other nations. Thus, it is art, the fight for its repatriation and its mere existence, that helps create the framework for collective memory. It is art that is the ultimate antidote to an empire’s amnesia.

< Back Tug-of-War: Chinese and American Shared Interest in Greenland Téa Breedon February 28, 2025 President Trump’s recent inauguration has sparked a series of policy shifts, driving changes in American conduct on a global stage. Among the most notable of these changes is Trump’s declaration of pursuing expansion to Greenland, echoing his past calls for American annexation of the Arctic territory. Trump’s interest in Greenland is largely tied to its potential for strengthening U.S. military presence in the Arctic, thereby enhancing its surveillance of adversaries to the east and safeguarding U.S. national security. Similarly, the Jinping administration attempted multiple Greenland grabs between 2016 and 2018, aiming to take control of the country for economic purposes. Rich with rare minerals yet sparse in population, Greenland serves as the perfect base for Chinese ambitions in the Arctic. Despite China being one of Greenland’s largest trading partners, accounting for all of Greenland’s seafood, ice and water exports, the nation responded with caution, wary of the risk of debt traps placed by entering into major material infrastructure deals with China. Together, these two global actors share an interest in territorial expansion to Greenland, identifying such ambitions as central to their nation’s success. In 2016, General Nice Resources —a Hong Kong-based company—made attempts to acquire a decommissioned Danish naval base, but Copenhagen rejected the bid due to concerns about jeopardizing the country’s relationship with the United States. China made a second pass at the region in 2018, offering to invest in Greenland’s airport infrastructure by modernizing its runways. Like the first, this attempt was blocked by Copenhagen, but it represents growing efforts to increase Chinese influence in the region. Aside from its rich resource bank, Greenland is appealing to China for its value to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—Beijing’s trade strategy aimed at connecting China to Asia, Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks. Establishing influence in Greenland would enhance Chinese access to Arctic shipping routes, explaining why Greenland has emerged as a popular target for geographical expansion. In 2019, Trump advanced a proposal for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, stemming from concerns about U.S. national security. Due to Greenland’s limited naval defenses and strategic location near the U.S., the USSR frequently used the island’s surrounding waters as a base for Soviet nuclear submarines, allowing them to monitor the U.S. and its NATO allies during the Cold War. Concerned about China adopting a similar strategy to that used by the Soviet Union in the 20th century, Trump issued a proposal for American annexation of the island. In addition to its role in deflecting Chinese expansion and influence, Greenland is of strategic significance to the U.S. for its relative distance from European conflicts and its value as a pitstop for aircraft refueling and military reconnaissance. In short, Greenland’s geographical position acts both as a buffer against global conflict and a vantage point for monitoring international activity. Despite the potential benefits of successfully acquiring Greenland, could the competition for control prove problematic for both nations? Might American annexation of the Arctic territory trigger Chinese attempts to challenge U.S. influence? Lessons learned from the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour shine light on these inquiries, pointing to the risks of over-reliance on the strategic significance of territorially-removed states. The Hawaiian naval base—most notable for its distance from adversaries and, thus, its potential for safeguarding the U.S. from international threats—suffered surprise Japanese military attacks in December 1941, forcing the U.S. into WWII in the following weeks. These attacks ended the debate over whether the U.S. should risk intervention in both the Pacific and European quarters of WWII, illustrating the dangers of over-dependence on the geographical advantage of a territorially-removed region such as Pearl Harbour. In this respect, assuming immunity to attacks based solely on geographic advantages is naive, potentially leaving a nation unprepared for international threats. Thus, should his plans come to fruition, Trump’s annexation of Greenland might provoke Chinese counterbalancing efforts, leaving the U.S. unprepared for a power struggle over the territory. The risk of an inter-state power struggle over Greenland is heightened by China’s condition as a declining power, making the 2020s rife with potential for conflict. China’s former One-Child policy —spanning from 1979–2015—initially intended to provide economic stimulus by creating a generation of unencumbered parents has recently led to a shrinking workforce and demographic decline. Consequently, the country is likely to find means to climb out of such decline—including territorial expansion to Greenland. In this sense, despite the common assumption that China is a global superpower, its current trend of economic downturn suggests a more precarious position that could fuel ambitions in—or competition over—Greenland. Greenland has become a focal point of strategic competition between the U.S. and China, with a mutual struggle risking triggering a new arena for great power rivalry. The historical lessons of overestimating geographic security, as seen by Pearl Harbour, highlight the potential dangers of relying on territorial distance to ensure national security. As China grapples with economic challenges and the U.S. seeks to reinforce its Arctic presence, it has become clear that Greenland could play a crucial role in shaping the future of international dynamics. Photo credits: New York National Guard, 2016

Now that I know two different worlds – an “elite” institution like Sciences Po and a “regular” public university like Heidelberg University – I have gained a whole new perspective on the academic and student life of Sciences Po. < Back Former Menton Student, Philipp Frank, Offers an Insider’s Outsider Perspective By Philipp Frank December 30, 2021 Questioning your past choices and worrying about the future are fundamental human traits. They are particularly prevalent among us young, adolescent students still trying to figure out how we want to live our lives. Studying at a university – especially if it is an international, multicultural and world-renowned institution like Sciences Po – is both exciting and stressful. However, it is first and foremost an unbelievably formative time that each and every one of us should try to get the most out of. As some (I hope not too few) of the current 2As know, I was a 1A student at the Sciences Po Paris Menton campus last year. I dropped out at the end of summer to begin studying law at Heidelberg University in Germany this winter. Now that I know two different worlds – an “elite” institution like Sciences Po and a “regular” public university like Heidelberg University – I have gained a whole new perspective on the academic and student life of Sciences Po. I believe that sharing this experience can give 2As some fresh insight and 1As – especially those among you still trying to figure out how to fit in or whether Sciences Po is the right choice for you – a different idea of what to expect. The academic life The educational system of Sciences Po is largely based on suffocating students with work. Whether it is presentations, exams, research papers, homework or simply revising lecture material – you are made to work a lot. There is some form of assessment that will influence your end-of-semester “relevé de notes” almost every week. There is free time, of course: days when you are free for a trip to Monaco or a swim at Sablettes. Moreover, all the work in the world will thankfully not stop people from going out and partying anyways. Nevertheless, no student can claim that Sciences Po does not significantly predetermine their daily and weekly schedule or that it leaves much room for them to manage their time themselves. Hence, the Sciences Po system is applying artificial pressure by making important decisions for you and requiring you to work long, hard and disciplined hours. This is training your physical and intellectual strength, resilience, and endurance to work successfully and effectively under pressure for a long time. Furthermore, you learn how to confront, analyze and summarize a lot of material and break it down to its essentials in the very short amount of time that is allocated to single tasks. In short, Sciences Po is aiming to transform you into a highly effective working machine – a very important trait to have personally and later in your career. However, there is a flipside to the Sciences Po system, for which the German language offers a wonderful word: “ verschulung .” Verschulung is negatively connotated. It means the implementation of educational methods from high school in educational programs that do not take place at high school (such as a university degree) and for which different educational methods are preferable. These educational methods include largely predetermined curricula, mandatory attendance, and dull knowledge transfer and retrieval — sound familiar? The consequence of verschulung at the university level is, in my opinion, that the ability to learn to work on your own and take personal responsibility falls short. To illustrate this problem, take the system of my current university: there is no mandatory attendance for any course, not even for the main ones. No professor or other lecturer checks or cares whether you come to class. There are no presentations, no oral contributions, no homework. Only exams and research papers count, which take place once during and in between semesters – and you do not have to take most of them right away. In short, everything is voluntary and, in theory, you do not have to work at all. This can be very liberating, but it puts a different kind of pressure on you because upon receiving your exam grades, you are confronted with reality. You see how well prepared you were and to what degree you lied to yourself. The university does not directly make you study; your motivation and your discipline have to come from yourself. Thus, in the long term, you learn to assess yourself, the limits of your knowledge and your intellectual capabilities, and how to make decisions based on that. You decide whether it is worth going to a lecture. You decide whether you have revised a topic enough or not. You decide whether you want to take one day off or maybe even four. Nothing is forced on you, everything lies in your hands, and at the end of the semester, you get what you deserve. This is not to say that Sciences Po students do not have or cannot learn these skills. However, having studied both at Sciences Po and Heidelberg University, I can confirm that the latter has challenged my discipline and motivation to study for the better. The tightness of the Sciences Po system has another consequence: the fact that there is only one degree for all students means that everyone is trained in more or less the same way of thinking. Regardless of where the people you meet come from, they are all social scientists in the making, hearing the same lectures, writing the same papers, learning the same logical methods. While I could not possibly claim that Sciences Po students generally have the same opinion (in fact, it is quite the opposite), I simply want to recommend to everyone to use the time abroad during your third year or your master’s degree to get to know people from a different academic background. I am a member of a debating club in Heidelberg and I cannot emphasize enough how fascinating it is to see students of law, maths, biology, and German literature debate each other and approach the same topic from four completely different perspectives. Social life My Heidelberg debating experience reminded me of another Sciences Po asset: the campus as a melting-pot of internationality and multiculturalism. Its importance and influence on personal development cannot be understated enough. The intercultural exchange taking place at Sciences Po comes in so many forms, whether it is language, food, associations, all forms of habit, or simple conversations. It might be boring to sit with six students of social sciences, but it can equally be exciting to sit with six students from six different countries and cultures. However, everyone living and cherishing this experience every day is well aware of this asset, so I have kept it short here. Much more interesting at this point is the nature of the social life of such a small campus as Menton. Here, everyone knows everyone, more or less. This has several implications, the first being that getting to know people and finding friends is much easier. A small campus and a well-connected student community in which various associations stage events for everyone to come to on an almost daily basis makes it easy to talk to new people, network to promote the new association that you founded, or look for a running buddy. This is in stark contrast to Heidelberg University, where lecture halls can be crammed with up to 400-600 people - try finding someone particular you met during Integration Week there… The small size of the campus has another implication though, as it makes social life in Menton much more personal, whilst leaving students with much less anonymity. This can be stressful and frightening in certain situations – gossip spreads much faster. Yet, overall, it gives the student community the chance and responsibility to integrate everyone. It is difficult to be lonely at Menton, because certain “student institutions'' hold the community together and, if needed, somewhat accountable. I am particularly thinking of the Feminist Union in this case, whose work and effort to raise awareness for sexual assault and educate about consent and sexual health I deeply admire, even more so now in retrospect after having left Menton and seeing that such associations are much needed elsewhere. Life at Sciences Po is hard-working, vibrant, and exciting. It is very formative because you are thrown into a stressful, multicultural melting-pot for only two short years. Time flies, especially at Menton, which is why – regardless of whether you like the system or how long you stay – you should dive all in and make the most of it.

The extreme right was never a force to be reckoned with in the history of France and only in the last decade did it become an actual threat to democracy and the well-being of the state. There are resemblances from the past to today’s situation, especially to the interwar period when such tendencies had an important sway. < Back The Extreme Right in France: Comeback or Novelty? Amer El-Ibrahim September 30, 2024 The rise of the extreme right in Europe is a subject that is ubiquitous in today’s conversations. We only think of its present popularity when it comes to our minds, but what about its history and its implication in today’s affairs? The results of the recent elections in France have made it clear that the right is now a force to be reckoned with, but was it always like this? First of all, the notions of the political “left” and “right” stem from the French Revolution, when, in the former National Assembly, people who were loyal to the crown sat on the right, while people who supported the revolution sat on the left. The right came to be recognised as wanting order above progress, supporting traditional institutions such as the family and the church and usually enforcing a strict social hierarchy. Meanwhile, the left was seen as being the exact opposite of the right, wanting change and reforms, from the political to the religious and social spheres. However, the extreme right in France did not appear until much later, tracing its origins back to the period of The Third Republic, when the country suffered terrible financial and territorial losses as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. In times of despair and crises such as the defeat in front of the Germans, a hurt national sentiment is as likely an outcome as is hunger and alienation. This was observed when the victorious party took Lorraine and Alsace; people became polarized and were pushed to one political spectrum or the other. The Dreyfus Affair of 1894, when a Jewish officer named Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason on false chargers much motivated by his ethnicity, crystallized the extreme right as a force. Until this event, French nationalism was seen as a part of the left, specifically as liberal nationalism, but during this affair nationalism was integrated into the far-right sphere, evolving into ethnic nationalism and blending with xenophobia and anti-Semitism. An important figure of the right was Charles Maurras, founder of integralism—a concept which stipulated that Catholic thought should be at the core of the state—who joined the small monarchist Action Francaise in 1898 He was the spiritual architect of this party and transformed it into a beacon of the extreme right by postulating his idea of integralism and by embedding in it a nationalism that bordered on xenophobia,anti-Semitism, anti-parliamentarian views and hatred towards the Republic. The Action Francaise was a forerunner of the right in France and the most relevant extreme right party that resulted from the Dreyfus affair. Its popularity reached its height during the interwar period when a number of extreme right parties made their appearance, prompted by the general rise of fascism in neighboring Germany and Italy. One of them was the Jeunesses Patriotes, founded by the multi-millionaire Taittinger. Another one was the Croix-de-Feu, originally an association for veterans decorated with the “fire-cross”, became nationalist and anti-parliamentary leanings during the leadership of Colonel La Rocque. However, both failed as parties mainly because of the lack of revolutionary spirit, being the armed hand of the bourgeois order rather than projecting a new one. The Faisceau was the first movement that was inspired by the Italian fascist party. The party was founded by Maurras’s former right hand, George Valois, who developed a strong leaning towards fascism, along with anti-bourgeois and prone to violent stances. Valois’s inflammatory rhetoric soon isolated the party and threw it into anonymity. The last generation of the right-extremists of the interwar period developed at the end of the thirties and is characterized by Jack Doriot’s Parti Populaire Francais (PPF) and Marcel Deat’s Rassemblement National Populaire. These parties were different from the others of their sort because the national question was not the founding basis of the parties, the social part and the idea of a new corporatist society being their main preoccupations. Additionally, their short-lived success was due to the fact that both leaders were affiliated in the past with left-wing organizations, subsequently rallying the working class into their movement. Nonetheless, the variety of the extreme right during the interwar period does not prove a propensity of people towards this spectrum, rather it showcases the generally anti-democratic values and attitudes of the citizens as anti-parliamentarism was very popular throughout the period. Although the right press and the ideas it diffused were widely popular, the parties’ electoral fortunes dwindled, so they were not able to take power. However, the establishment of the Vichy regime led by Marshal Petain after the May defeat in 1940 was the synthesis of varied branches of the extreme right, from Maurassians to fascists, which did not express themselves in plenitude during the 1930s. The main philosophy of this regime could be summed up by the triad “work, family, country” and it consisted of accentuated nationalism, the refusal of individualism and egalitarianism, as well as the search for national unity, the rejection of cultural freedom and an anti-intellectual sentiment. Nevertheless, this regime was not just a regular puppet state controlled by the Germans, rather it was a long-awaited opportunity to implement a national revolution that would cleanse France of the decay that parliamentarism had brought. In the years following the war, the extreme right had to deal with the legacy the Vichy regime left, which was not favorable to them. The most important extreme right movement of the Fourth Republic was the Jeune Nation, which was the first organization that branded itself as neo-fascist. Its success can be traced to the fact that it purified itself of Petainiste views, but it was limited mostly to students rather than the masses and was dissolved by the authorities in 1958 for agitation for violent actions. The transition to the Fifth Republic and the Gaullist regime stifled the extreme right even more, which would plunge into marginality for the next 20 years. Born from the student revolts of May 1968, the Ordre Nouveau (ON) was the major extreme right organization in the 70s. It emphasized anti-communism and anti-immigration, contesting initially the electoral system, but later creating a legitimate political party that ran for elections called the Front National (FN). The movement exploited the nostalgia for the Vichy Regime embodied by Catholic fundamentalists, integralists and other remnants of interwar extreme-right parties. The spirit of the party was concentrated on anti-communism, nationalism, anti-immigration, a strong state and defense of traditional values. Jean Marie Le Pen, founder of the party and its leader until 2011, opposed the fascist leanings of the ON members of the party and emphasized the need for the party to remain legal. This conflict inside the party resulted in the ON leaving, thus offering space for other closeted right extremists. Other parties resulted from this split, but they remained completely marginal. From the 1970s to the present times, the FN remained the main extreme right force in France. Its first breakthrough happened in 1983 and after this point, its popularity only grew, but the party never exceeded the 20 percent mark in elections until 2012, when the leadership was moved to Le Pen’s daughter, Marie Le Pen. What one can gather from all of this is that the extreme right was never a force to be reckoned with in the history of France and only in the last decade did it become an actual threat to democracy and the well-being of the state. There are resemblances from the past to today’s situation, especially to the interwar period when such tendencies had an important sway. By focusing mainly on what happened in the last century, I wanted to highlight that such movements leaning towards the extreme right are something recurrent and that the danger of them taking power has always existed. The only difference is that this year they almost won. However, similar to the interwar period, their newfound popularity seems to stem from discontent regarding the current government and state of affairs, and not from an actual conviction in what they postulate. But this remains only an impression and should be regarded with doubt.

When I attended the Sciences Po rentrée solennelle and I heard myself called an elite member of French society; I felt very confused. < Back Elitism at Sciences Po By Saoirse Aherne September 29, 2021 About three days before my flight was set to leave for France, I found myself huddled around the kitchen table with my parents engaging in a long conversation about the adventure on which I was about to embark. At some point, my Dad turned to me and warned me that universities in Europe were far more classist than those in Canada. I brushed off his comments. I assumed my dad was describing the Europe of his time, the culture he left 19 years ago. I couldn't picture an academic setting that would push a narrative of superiority or intellectual elitism — how alien, how foreign. Just about anyone in Canada can get into university. Sure, some institutions carry a little more prestige, but at an undergraduate level, the world of Canadian post-secondary education is incredibly relaxed. Then I arrived at SciencesPo Menton. I attended the rentrée solennelle and I heard myself called an elite member of French society; I felt very confused. Elite? That word carries some heavy connotation for me. Division, oppression, superiority, social stratification-isolated-out-of-touch-legacy….. These ideas swirled around my head as I sat in the Descoings Amphitheatre. Who would willingly define themselves as an elite? The thought of being seen as a member of some special social club made me feel a little ill, and it became clear that my reaction was not unique in speaking to other American and Canadian students. I had to stop myself from spiralling, and question whether the way I had come to understand the elite was different from its meaning in France. Perhaps my issue was not with the ideology of SciencesPo but rather was founded in my own cultural ignorance. I became curious — what does it mean to be an elite here in France? Can the idea of an elite play a valid and productive role in modern society, or is this an archaic concept that needs to be laid to rest? In speaking to a French track student who will remain anonymous, I encountered quite a different definition of the elite from the one I had come to know. This source defines the elite as a “part of a given population that has the most… cultural capital” and thus the power to influence society. However they also make a distinction between “theoretical” elites and “true” elites. To be an elite, this source believes that one must manifest cultural capital in the form of productive action. One must use education and power to contribute to societal progress. Hence the source denotes that elites can be valuable to society but only when they utilise the power bestowed to them by their cultural capital, and further suggests that only those who do, constitute legitimate elites. This perspective seems to merge meritocratic values with the concept of elites, something that I as a Canadian student would never have considered possible. However the definition produces more questions if we return to the tendency of Sciences Po to label its students as elite. Have we truly had the opportunity to accumulate cultural capital and use it to the benefit of society? Many students underwent rigorous and selective application processes to arrive here, but does that in and of itself make them elite? According to my source, it does not. We cannot adopt the powerful identifier that is “The elite” whilst spending our time partying and invading Sablettes. As of now, we are merely “elites in potential.” This assertion creates some conflict when we consider the manifestations of elitism on our campus. I'm referring specifically to the selectivity of student organisations in Menton. Discovering that student associations have rigorous application processes and further reject many candidates was a huge surprise to me. My English track peers and I have discussed on numerous occasions how confusing it is that some people are denied the opportunity to volunteer their time to causes about which they are passionate. At the core of this application tradition is the belief that a hand-picked group of the most qualified individuals is more efficient and capable than a large group of interested people. In all honesty, that doesn’t sound too unreasonable. However, I’ve encountered many people who were denied entry to associations in spite of being highly qualified for a position. It seems as if the validity of association boards is characterised by the exclusion of other students — selectivity is a means to achieve legitimacy. Finally, if we return to my source's assertion that the state of being an elite must be earned through action, why is it that we deny “potential elites” in our student body the opportunity to manifest their cultural capital in a productive manner? My source makes a point to say, “we should not categorise French students as a pro-elite group.” French society is deeply split on the validity and responsibilities of the elite. However, the source also recognizes that having grown up with an understanding of Les Grandes Écoles , and having internalised the validity of the selective process through schooling, French students have a “specific opinion of the Elite.” Looking at the history of elites in France can provide some insight as to why the notion of elites remains so prevalent in the French education system. A study by Mara P. Squicciarini of Bocconi University, and UCLA Anderson’s Nico Voigtländer found that the French revolution was driven by “enlightened elites.” Indeed, it was educated scientists and philosophers who drove social change and upended the French monarchy. This study found that regions in revolutionary France with higher proportions of knowledgeable elites were far more likely to support education for the masses, freedom of the press, and equal rights. It is unsurprising that elites have come to be associated with the protection of freedom and education in France. Such that the contributions of this class built the foundation of modern French values, there is a logic to the belief that they should continue to strongly influence politics in this nation. Ultimately, this study concludes that “the presence of ‘enlightened elites’ can encourage positive growth and democracy-building.” Perhaps the state of being an elite in France is less defined by a special quality or superior intellect, and more founded in a passionate desire to improve French society. Indeed, this definition seems to echo that which my source provided. But this does not explain the origins of anti-elitism in France, which is just as prevalent as elitism itself. Consider the Gilets Jaunes, a popular movement that attacked the supposed oligarchic French political system, claiming it was governed by rich, out-of-touch Elites. My source agrees that these movements are founded on a valid critique of classism in the French system, wherein “it is very hard for the son or daughter of a worker to gain legitimate cultural knowledge.” According to the French Observatory of Inequalities, students whose parents hold high income jobs are 12 times more likely to enter l’Ecole Nationale d’Administration , one of Les Grandes Écoles , than those from poorer backgrounds. It is important to note that l’Ecole Nationale d’Administration has a reputation for producing presidents, heads of state and senior officials in the French administration. Thus, in excluding a social class from accessing schools such as l’ENA, huge portions of the population come to feel unrepresented by their government. In a way, Les Grandes Écoles have become emblematic of class division within French society. To justify this claim, one need only look at Macron’s announcement on April 8th that l’ENA will be abolished and replaced by a "Public Service Institution.” This comes two years after Macron introduced the idea of closing l’ENA as a response to the Gilets Jaunes movement. Considering this, why is it that we, at Sciences Po, continue to build an identity around elitism? The emotional attachment to the historical revelry that surrounded the academic elite is not productive. My source states that to combat anti-elitism, equality of opportunity must be established within the French education system, though this is an idealistic objective. A change of that nature requires that we reframe the notion of the elite; it requires us to stop calling students elite when they have yet to make societal contributions. The practice of calling a student elite based merely on their place of study denotes that one need not achieve legitimacy through action, thus breeding “theoretical elites” who lack a sense of responsibility to the betterment of society. Macron’s closure of l’ENA suggests that French culture and political opinion is shifting in its view of the elite. If SciencesPo is not careful, it shall be left behind in this tide of changing perception.

Ayant vécu toute mon enfance en Argentine, je n'avais jamais entendu l'expression « les Américains » pour désigner les ressortissants des Etats-Unis jusqu'à mon arrivée à Sciences Po. < Back Nique l'Amérique (attendez, les États-Unis ou le continent) By Amalia Heide March 30, 2024 Ayant vécu toute mon enfance en Argentine, je n'avais jamais entendu l'expression « les Américains » pour désigner les ressortissants des Etats-Unis jusqu'à mon arrivée à Sciences Po. Je pense que cet usage particulier de l’ethnonyme a été l'un des chocs culturels les plus importants que j'ai vécus en France. Ce qui m'a le plus surpris, cependant, c'est de découvrir que même les professeurs et les universitaires se réfèrent aux États-Unis en tant qu'« Amérique » et aux États-uniens en tant qu'« américains ». Cette expérience, si troublante et étrangère à mes oreilles, m'a amené à réfléchir profondément à l'importance des nomenclatures dans les identités collectives. Je précise que je ne cherche pas, dans cet article, à porter un jugement de valeur sur les citoyens états-uniens qui utilisent le terme « américain » pour désigner leur identité nationale. Je comprends qu'il s'agit d'une coutume, d'un processus d'apprentissage social qui est souvent dénué de toute malveillance à l'égard des habitants du continent. Au contraire, mon intention est d'offrir une perspective alternative à l'approche prédominante sur les campus en explorant la compréhension de ce phénomène d'attribution d'identité. Pour réfléchir à cette question, je trouve intéressant de commencer par comprendre l'importance des mots. Comme le dit Locke, « les mots sont les signes des idées ». Les idées sont des représentations mentales qui dépendent dans une certaine mesure de la subjectivité de l'individu. Par conséquent, les mots sont les symboles de notre subjectivité. En ce sens, les mots ne DESIGNENT pas de manière neutre mais SIGNIFIENT. L'exemple de l'utilisation des ethnonymes « Palestine » et « Israël » est illustratif. Il ne s'agit pas de noms propres neutres, bien qu'ils désignent parfois la même zone géographique. Leurs significations diffèrent, impliquant des tensions socio-économiques et politiques. Dans ce cas, les tensions sont évidentes, je n'ai pas besoin de les expliciter. Elles ne sont pas aussi évidentes dans le cas qui nous intéresse ici : Qu'implique l'utilisation de l'ethnonyme "Amérique" pour désigner l'État-nation des États-Unis d'Amérique ? Tout d'abord, le double usage du mot "américain" pour désigner les habitants d'un État et les habitants d'un continent pose des problèmes concernant l'identification : à laquelle des deux entités faisons-nous référence dans son utilisation ? Le mot perd ainsi sa fonction principale de désignation et de repérage. C'est pourquoi la Real Academia Española, l'équivalent de l'Académie française, préconise d' « éviter l'emploi d'Américain pour désigner exclusivement les habitants des États-Unis, emploi abusif (...) Il ne faut pas oublier que l'Amérique est le nom du continent tout entier, et que tous ceux qui y vivent sont des Américains . » Cependant, cette confusion entre l'État-nation et le continent ne peut être interprétée UNIQUEMENT comme la conséquence d'un abus de langage. La langue, outil fondamental d'expression et de communication des idées, reflète les perceptions et les conceptions qu'une société a d'elle-même et de sa relation au monde qui l'entoure. Quelle est la relation entre les Etats-Unis et le continent en termes d'identité ? La création de l'État-nation implique la définition d'un territoire administratif fixe. Depuis la déclaration d'indépendance, l'aire géographique des États-Unis d'Amérique s'est progressivement étendue sur un demi-siècle. Cet prolongation de la frontière vers l'ouest est une première manifestation de ce que les treize premières colonies envisageaient pour les États-Unis : un État expansionniste ayant pour but « d'accroître sa domination économique et politique dans un autre espace géographique » (définition du terme "expansionnisme"). C'est une première indication du rapport des Étasuniens au continent américain : en réalité, il n'y avait pas de démarcation nette, permanente et définie entre les deux entités, puisque les frontières n'étaient pas figées et la volonté politique était qu'elles ne soient pas immuables dès sa fondation. De même, le colonialisme d'outre-mer initié par les États-Unis confirme et approfondit cette ligne de distinction opaque entre l' « Amérique » en tant que continent et en tant qu'État-nation. En effet, après la guerre avec l'Espagne sur le territoire cubain en 1898, les États-Unis ont non seulement annexé les colonies espagnoles des Philippines, de Porto Rico et de Guam, mais aussi les territoires non espagnols d'Hawaï et des Samoa américaines. En outre, nous pouvons observer sur la deuxième carte comment les États-Unis sont intervenus dans les autres pays souverains du continent américain au cours du 20e siècle. Si l'expansion directe par l'annexion de territoires est une forme évidente d'expansionnisme, l'interventionnisme est une stratégie plus subtile mais tout aussi efficace pour étendre la portée de l’influence de l'Etat-nation états-unien. Ayant une politique expansionniste depuis leur fondation, « les États-Unis », « l'Union », « la République » étaient des noms propres qui désignaient mais n'exprimaient pas l'essence de la perception de soi et de la perception extérieure de l'identité nationale des " gringos ". Ainsi, l' « Amérique » est un concept linguistique qui agit comme un miroir de cette ambiguïté conceptuelle, contribuant à la construction d'une identité nationale qui se présente comme la représentation même d'une région géographique entière. Dans ce contexte, la doctrine Monroe et son slogan « l'Amérique aux Américains » peuvent être interprétés comme « le continent aux États-Unis. » Je ne souhaiterais pas que mon propos soit mal compris : je ne rejette pas entièrement les autres raisons historiques pour lesquelles les Étasuniens se désignent eux-mêmes comme des «Américains». En effet, cette utilisation du terme a été introduite par les Britanniques pendant la guerre d'indépendance. Petite réflexion curieuse : ironiquement, l'attribution de l'ethnonyme "américain" aux treize premières colonies des États-Unis peut être attribuée au colonialisme. Cependant, si l'ethnonyme était courant depuis l'indépendance en 1776 pour désigner l'identité nationale des Etats-Unis auprès de la société civile, il n'était pas employé de manière systématique. Le problème est de comprendre que la systématisation de cet usage répond à une instrumentalisation politique. En effet, le premier président à prendre ses fonctions après la guerre hispano-américaine fut Teddy Roosevelt. Impérialiste convaincu, il systématise l'usage de " America " avec des slogans tels que " God Bless America ". Le slogan " Make America Great Again ", au 21e siècle, suit la même dynamique. En tant qu'étudiants en sciences politiques, nous savons qu'un slogan ou la formalisation d'un terme sont rarement le fruit du hasard. Ils répondent à un projet politico-identitaire, et dans ce cas, cela est un synonyme d’comme nous l'avons déjà vu, un projet impérialiste. En guise de conclusion, je dois admettre que l'instrumentalisation de l'ethnonyme "Amérique" était une idée brillante. Cette stratégie constitue aujourd'hui un exemple de soft power . Pourquoi dis-je cela ? L' « Amérique » joue un rôle crucial dans la perception des États-Unis par les populations situées en dehors des Amériques. Il y a une fusion plus ou moins volontaire de ces deux termes qui aboutit à l'amplification de l'image des États-Unis et, en même temps, à l'invisibilisation ou à l'occultation d'une identité collective régionale, continentale et/ou nationale. Pour illustrer mon propos, nous pouvons nous tourner vers le continent européen comme un parallèle utile. Imaginons que les Allemands se nomment eux-mêmes « Européens ». Cela signifie que lorsque l'on dit « les Européens », on peut faire référence à la fois aux habitants du continent dans son ensemble et exclusivement à la nationalité allemande. Par exemple, si quelqu'un dit « les Européens ont subi un tremblement de terre », comment savoir de qui on parle ? De même, lorsque nous entendons « nouvelles d'Europe », s'agit-il d'événements survenus dans un pays particulier ou dans la région en général ? En outre, il est clair qu'indirectement, notre esprit aura tendance à associer l'« Europe » d'abord à l'Allemagne plutôt qu'aux 50 autres États souverains du continent. Il peut en résulter une amplification de l'importance de l'Allemagne et une diminution de la pertinence des 50 autres États. Dans les relations internationales, cette dimension identitaire et la représentation qu'elle implique peuvent peser lourd dans l'équilibre des forces. Cela plairait-il aux français par exemple que les Allemands s'approprient exclusivement le terme “européen” ? Ne se sentiraient-ils pas exclus si la plupart des personnes non-françaises associaient les Européens exclusivement aux Allemands ? Ici, je n'ai donné l'exemple de l’Allemagne, un État membre de l'UE. Cependant, l'Union européenne a tendance à s'approprier du terme ‘européen’ souvent au détriment des États qui n'en sont pas membres, ce qui pose également problème. Enfin, tout ce blabla pour expliquer pourquoi il peut être gênant pour un habitant du continent américain d'entendre comment les États-Unis ont triomphé dans leur appropriation de ce gentilé avec tant de connotations et de problèmes politiques, géostratégiques et identitaires. Il est difficile de s'habituer à comprendre comment, en Europe, il est devenu si normalisé d'appeler un Yankee « Américain. » À cela, on pourrait me dire (et on me l'a déjà dit sur ce campus) qu'en tant qu'Argentine, je suis « latino-américaine » et non « américaine ». Je pense qu'il est important de réaliser que, premièrement, le terme "latino-américain" a été introduit par l'Europe. Deuxièmement, le fait d'être latino-américain ne signifie pas que je ne suis pas américaine. Ces deux identités ne s'excluent pas mutuellement. Tout comme un Italien peut être à la fois européen et méditerranéen. Je vous laisse avec un couplet de l'emblématique chanteuse argentine Mercedes Sosa : « L'Amérique attend Et le siècle devient bleu Pampas, rivières et montagnes Libèrent leur propre lumière La copla n'a pas de propriétaire Les motifs ne commandent plus La guitare américaine En se battant, elle a appris à chanter. » -- Chanson pour mon Amérique

< Back L’Europe sous Trump: qu’adviendra t-il de l’Ukraine? Anna Halpern December 31, 2024 « Vous devez comprendre que si l’Europe est attaquée, nous ne viendrons jamais vous aider et vous soutenir » : voici les mots de Donald Trump à Ursula von der Leyen en 2020, selon Thierry Breton. Nombre d’entre nous en Europe se sont réveillés le 6 novembre en nous demandant ce que nous réserve le futur, et comment faire face à un nouveau mandat de Trump, dont la perspective se dessinait de plus en plus clairement. Cela faisait déjà des mois que l’Europe se préparait à cette possibilité sans pour autant avoir une solution unanime. La question phare: qu'adviendra-t-il de l'Ukraine si Trump redevient président, et comment la communauté européenne peut-elle se dissocier des Etats-Unis sur le plan sécuritaire? Quelle est donc cette nouvelle position États-Unienne sur la guerre en Ukraine qui fait trembler l’Europe? Donald Trump a fait de la fin de la guerre en Ukraine, et surtout de son financement en grande partie par Washington, l’un des points clés de son programme électoral. Il s’est fait le porte drapeau d’un non-interventionnisme , d’une réduction de l'armée et d’un ‘chacun pour soi’ ou il envisage la défense des alliés des Etats-Unis—notamment l’Europe et Taiwan —comme un service rendu qu’ils devraient payer. Sous ses promesses de pousser pour un cessez le feu immédiat et de « mettre fin à la guerre en Ukraine en vingt-quatre heures , » les observateurs sont nombreux à craindre une menace de retrait de l’aide américaine pour tordre le bras de Zelensky et le pousser à négocier une fin potentiellement désavantageuse à la guerre. En préparation d’une politique américaine bien moins avantageuse, les vingt-sept essaient de se recentrer sur des solutions européennes. En effet, pas plus tard que ce jeudi douze décembre, le Président français et le Premier ministre polonais ont discuté de l’option poussée par Emmanuel Macron d’envoyer des troupes en Ukraine. Cette option serait indépendante de l’OTAN et de l’UE, mais impliquerait une base « bilatérale. » Ce n’est pas la première fois que le Président français envisage l’envoie de troupes au sol. En effet, cela avait été abordé en février, ou il avait parlé d’une « ambiguïté stratégique » en n'écartant aucune option militaire. Néanmoins, cette idée ne fait pas consensus, que se soit l’Allemagne en février ou la Pologne plus récemment, nombreux sont les pays qui ne seraient pas « considérés comme disposés à envoyer éventuellement des troupes. » Ce manque de consensus se reflète aussi au niveau de l’ambition de restructuration de la politique et des capacités défensives de l'Europe. L’Union européenne n’a pas d'armée commune, mais possède une politique de sécurité et de défense commune ou PSDC et un Fond Européen de défense ou FED . Bien qu’une ‘boussole stratégique’ commune ait été établie pour clarifier les objectifs sécuritaires européens, les divergences sur le degré d'intégration militaire auquel l’UE devrait aspirer sont largement visibles. D’une part, le nouvel air Trump ainsi que la guerre en Ukraine indiquent un besoin d'autonomisation de l’Europe en matière sécuritaire. D’autre part, la mise en place de cette autonomisation et du soutien à l’Ukraine fait division. En premier plan, les divergences intra-européennes sur le sujet de l’emprunt commun et de l’achat de munitions plutôt que des dépenses à des fins civiles, soulignent un manque de coordination et d’alignement stratégique au sein de l’Union. Une question qui ressort souvent dans ces divisions, est la problématique d’une armée européenne. Cette idée historiquement soutenue par l’Allemagne et la France et largement opposée au sein des pays de l’Europe de l’est a été remise sur le plateau depuis le début de la guerre en Ukraine. En effet, les pays européens qui pour beaucoup sont au sein de l’OTAN et ne remplissent pas leur quota de 2% du budget pour l'armée, se sont retrouvés en besoin d’un grand changement et d’une remilitarisation face à un retour inattendu de la guerre sur leur continent. Bien que ce ne soit pas la première fois que cette notion d’ « Europe de la défense » apparaisse, est-ce que cette fois les européens réussiront à faire front commun? Les suggestions sur les dépenses communes, pour donner plus de cohérence à leurs armées, la notion de promouvoir des achats d’armement d’industriels européens et l'établissement d’objectifs communs semblent des signes prometteurs. Mais on est encore bien loin de la notion d’une armée commune car les divisions de culture militaire entre les pays sont encore trop fortes, et les objectifs politiques trop divergents. Ces divisions intra-européenne s'imposent donc comme une grave difficulté en essayant d'imaginer l'Europe sous Trump. En effet, il est clair qu’aucun consensus n’existe encore pour y répondre. Entre les pays les plus fortement défenseurs de l’Ukraine qui envisagent l’envoie de troupes sur le terrain, et ceux qui commencent à se demander si tous les efforts européens pour l'Ukraine sont bien raisonnables face à des troubles économiques et politiques grandissants, il est dors et déjà possible de dire que les rêves de fédération de certains pro-européens est loin d'être une réalité à ce jour. Néanmoins, il est tout de même important de souligner que l’Europe a réussi à se coordonner. Elle a envoyé une aide non négligeable, et à vu une augmentation de l’investissement militaire à travers un grand nombre de ses membres. Cette adaptation révèle sa capacité à faire face qui pourrait lui permettre de se placer dans le top des puissances militaires dans le futur.

December 22, 2025 Menton’s Senior Citizens Won’t Bite: Go Talk to Them! Shortly after arriving in Menton this August, I got the sense that the town’s older residents are not particularly fond of Sciences Pistes. For many students, this might not come as such a shock. After Integration Week, complaints echoed through the Old Town. As one woman eloquently put it, “Sciences Po drove us crazy until 3 in the morning !” The objections vary in subtlety, from frustrated sighs and muttered grievances to water-pouring incidents on the heads of unsuspecting Le Rétro-goers. Read More September 30, 2025 How I Survive the Walk to School Without Losing my Will to Live Everyone loves to brag about how they can roll out of bed five minutes before class and still make it to class on time. (Good for you, king. May your alarm never betray you.) Meanwhile, some of us are out here having our own daily Olympic event—a 20-30 minute trek to campus. Every. Single. Day. Character-building, they say. Trauma, I reply. Read More September 30, 2025 On Becoming Mentonnais Yet, for much of my first few days, the town seemed quite impersonal to me: I felt disconnected. Because for all its beauty, I felt as if Menton always found a way to avoid intimacy. It pushed me to ask, what does it mean to be a part of this town anyways? Read More September 29, 2025 There's No Place Like Home I have always felt that way because “home”, to me, has always been a patchwork. There’s the place you were born, the one you grew up in, the countries tied to your heritage, and now a campus far away from everything you ever knew. Each one of them feels like “home,” but then again none of them quite do. They overlap and argue with each other—they coexist like siblings fighting over the bigger room. Read More September 28, 2025 Locals Versus Students: One Town, Two Communities When you search Menton on the internet, you’re greeted with pictures of lemon trees, sparkling blue water, and beautiful multi-colored buildings dotting the coast. It seems like a no-brainer when choosing your Sciences Po campus – who wouldn’t want to live in one of the most beautiful towns in the world? But as students arrived in August, they began to realize that living in Menton might not be as pleasant as it seems online. Read More September 27, 2025 A Year in Retrospect Accepting that “leaving one place does not mean that I leave my problems behind” is the biggest lesson this place has, accidentally or not, taught me. Being content where one is is a choice, although not an easy one. Life can be a lot of work, even when living on the Riviera. Read More April 30, 2025 An Ode To Menton: Notes From the Edge of France As we 2As prepare for our departure, I wonder what my biased memory will frame my time in Menton to be. Is living in the Côte D’Azur really as luxe as Instagram stories sell-it to be? This is my little reflection to remember the highs and the lows while they're still fresh in my memory. Here are ten lessons (from the 100s) from Menton Read More April 30, 2025 Cocteau’s Azur: Exploring Queerness in Menton At first glance, Menton appears to be a quaint and peaceful town on the French Riviera—a place of leisure, history, and, of course, lemons. But is Menton truly as fruity as it seems? Read More March 31, 2025 Choose Your Fighter: Dual Degree Edition Though they are both great, one has to be better, right? Is being a Lion superior to being a Golden Bear? Are the views of the Bay more attractive than the sights of the Big Apple? Read More February 28, 2025 Schengen: Border(less)? If you were to explain this idea to a person living in the era of the Iron Curtain, they would probably see it as unrealistic humor. But does Schengen truly live up to this utopic practice? Rising concerns about national security are now testing Schengen’s limits. What is the current reality of a borderless Europe and is it truly borderless? Read More February 28, 2025 Menton Abroad! Where Our 2As Are Going Next Year and Why The difference in demographics won't have a clear explanation or a defining narrative. Part of it comes from the individual interests of students or the current zeitgeist. Regardless, students from all year groups share the excitement of following their peers' path, whether in the busy streets of Cairo or on the beaches of Australia. Menton's student community is an international fabric composed of pieces from all over the globe, and it's only fair that this same group will remain unceasingly international in their choices. Read More December 31, 2024 L'Usine Located at 3 Rue de Général Gallienie is one of Menton's most precious boutiques, L’Usine. Based on an old factory, as its name suggests, L’Usine is one of Menton's biggest antique stores. Amid its multiple floors, rooms, and charming garden, the family-owned business has cultivated a collection of regional items, from home decor to jewelry, that exist as an archive of a Côte d’Azur that is long lost. Read More

December 20, 2025 Liquid Gold: The Story of Palestinian Olive Oil Read More November 6, 2025 Digital Resistance: How Young Palestinians Use Social Media to Preserve Memory In Palestine, memory has always been a form of resistance. Today, it lives not only in embroidery and heritage, but on digital screens across the world. Across Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinian towns inside Israel, a new generation is documenting life, loss, and love in "real- time" — transforming social media into a living archive of survival. Read More September 30, 2025 Points sur l’Actualité du Moyen-Orient « Le Moyen-Orient. Moyen par rapport à quoi ? Orient de quoi ? Le nom de la région est fondé sur une vision eurocentrée du monde, et cette région a été façonnée par un regard européen ». Tels sont les premiers mots figurant dans le manifeste de la géostratégie publié par Tim Marshall, spécialiste britannique des relations internationales. Prisonnier de la géographie, comme le suggère le titre de son œuvre, le Moyen-Orient l’est aussi de ses frontières tracées au gré des intérêts européens, qui l’ont enfermé dans une spirale de haines et de tensions sans fin. Read More March 31, 2025 La cause palestinienne, un nouveau souffle pour le panarabisme? Le Sommet arabe du 4 mars semblerait révéler une exception à une longue période de quasi-désengagement. Ce rassemblement pourrait-il marquer une réaffirmation de la solidarité arabe et un regain d'intérêt pour les aspirations nationales palestiniennes? Le plan adopté pourrait en effet, potentiellement, révéler un retour de la lutte des pays arabes pour la cause palestinienne. Read More January 31, 2025 Repenser l’histoire de la guerre civile libanaise L’absence de mémoire collective divise; chaque communauté se retrouve attachée à sa propre version du passé. Alors, quelle histoire raconter? Comment peut-on espérer construire un futur partagé lorsque les fractures du passé nous maintiennent encore captifs? Read More December 31, 2024 Censorship Concerns in Turkish Media The government’s control over media is seen as a way to shape public opinion in regard to their own agendas, protect their own interests and prevent opposing views from gaining popularity. Read More December 31, 2024 Loin des yeux, près du coeur: les Libanais de la diaspora face au chaos On quitte rarement le Liban, on s’en sépare, souvent contre sa volonté. Et pourtant, dans cette séparation, une étrange alchimie se crée: plus le pays sombre dans le chaos, plus il semble s’effondrer sous les poids du temps et de la guerre, et plus l’attachement et le patriotisme de ses enfants, même à l’autre bout du monde, se fait viscéral. Ce phénomène est particulièrement visible parmi les étudiants libanais en France, pour qui ce patriotisme se nourrit de la résistance face à un contexte tendu, marqué par les tensions et les conflits internes. Read More November 30, 2024 Athenian Architecture and Urban Policy: Diffuse (Dis)Organization Or A New Sense of Cohesion? Concrete, tall and monotonous, these “famous postwar apartment blocks” have for better or for worse forged Athens’ contemporary architectural identity, usually conveying a feeling of indifference or discontent to most of its residents. With their appearance dating back to the early twentieth century, their preponderance and widespread development in the following decades is intrinsically tied to the city’s historic path and the occurrence of various major events such as growing demographic pressures and the end of the military junta in 1974. Read More November 30, 2024 EU-Tunisia Deal: Migration Control at the Cost of Human Rights? The EU’s ongoing partnerships with authoritarian regimes, such as Tunisia, to control migration raises crucial concerns about the ethics and long-term efficacy of such agreements. While these arrangements may offer short-term containment, they fail to address the systemic drivers of migration, such as political repression, economic instability and environmental degradation, prevalent in many MENA countries. Read More September 30, 2024 Libya: Victim of a Double Crisis While many, particularly in the political arena, view the disaster as purely natural, experts point to human factors such as corruption, poor infrastructure maintenance and chronic conflicts that have left the country unprepared for events like Storm Daniel. This disaster highlights how human irresponsibility in two key areas—climate change and political instability—has compounded the crisis. Read More September 30, 2024 Najib Mikati, un milliardaire dans le marécage du Grand Sérail Najib Mikati incarne un Liban corrompu et à bout de souffle. Le passé et le présent du pays se sont fait avec lui, mais le futur qu’espèrent nombre de libanais ne pourra se réaliser que lorsque Najib Mikati et toute la classe politique qu’il représente seront relégués au musée. De nouveaux visages sur scène sont attendus pour la nouvelle pièce à écrire. Read More September 30, 2024 Women in Sudan Caught in Conflict When conflicts arise, the most vulnerable members of society—women and children—are impacted disproportionally. As a global society, global organizations such as the United Nations need to ensure that every person within the Sudanese community is protected and their rights are upheld during such conflicts. Read More September 30, 2024 Terrorism & Climate Change: A Collective Effort To Further Destabilize West Africa? When thinking about global warming, one rarely associates it with terrorism. Nevertheless, when looking at the aims of terrorist organizations and the potential power and influence that climate change predisposes them to have in certain regions of the world, we understand both the disparity of the situation and the urgent need for it to change. Read More April 30, 2024 L'implication du Yémen dans la guerre de Gaza : l'essor des houthis et la dynamique régionale Dans le contexte du conflit de Gaza entre Israël et le Hamas, le Yémen, déjà en proie à ses propres troubles internes, se trouve de plus en plus impliqué dans des complexités régionales, principalement orchestrées par le mouvement houthis montant. Read More April 30, 2024 Armenia: The EU As a Destination? Ever since the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia has understood that it is surrounded by dangerous neighbors. Read More March 31, 2024 Constructing a Technocratic Government in Post-War Gaza In the West Bank and Gaza, where de facto democracy has long been out of the question and the destructive implications of war continue to devastate, a technocracy may be the only viable solution to address the needs of a population in ruins. Read More March 30, 2024 L’industrie cinématographique en Arabie saoudite Entre des réformes politiques en faveur du droit des femmes tels que le droit de conduire et le droit à l'obtention d’un passeport et au voyage à l'international sans autorisation d’un parent masculin et les réformes culturelles tel que l'accès au cinéma et la production de films, le pays semble changer radicalement. Read More March 30, 2024 Iranian Elections: What Messages Can Be Understood? The victory of the current regime, which was unsurprising for everyone, holds several messages. However, its validity and democratic facade must be taken with a pinch of salt. Read More March 30, 2024 In The Lead-Up to Local Elections, Istanbul’s Kurdish Voters in Spotlight Until now, Kurdish voters have gritted their teeth and arguably voted against their best interest for the sake of democracy, and it seems that we must now imagine a world where they do not. Read More February 29, 2024 Changing Face of Foreign Correspondence as Journalist Deaths Skyrocket While news organizations grapple with industry shifts due to globalization and new technologies, journalists face more imminent danger while reporting conflict than ever. Read More

December 10, 2025 Iraq at the Ballots On Nov. 11 Iraqis went to the parliamentary election ballots to determine who gets the 329 seats on Iraq’s Council of Representatives. Read More October 31, 2025 What Happened to Freedom of Speech? Kirk’s murder came as a shock to many across the United States, sparking a wide range of reactions. Fellow right-wing activists and conservative politicians publicly grieved the loss of their friend and colleague, while left-wing politicians openly condemned the act of political violence, reiterating the need for gun reform in America. Online, however, the general reaction was much less mournful. People flocked online to criticize politicians for “martyring” Kirk, who spouted many racist, sexist and discriminatory views throughout his career. Many questioned whether this was a man who deserved to be honored. Read More October 23, 2025 General Debate in the UN Assembly Annalena Baerbock of Germany, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2025, served as the President of the General Assembly and declared the theme of this year's debate as “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.” Baerbock began her remarks by highlighting the plight of children in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, and gang violence in Haiti. Moving on, she stated that cynics of the United Nations needed to realize that the “the [United Nations] Charter, our Charter, is only as strong as Member States’ willingness to uphold it,” encouraging the rest of the delegates to “act when action is needed.” Read More October 21, 2025 Le néolibéralisme à la française «La France est un enfer fiscal.» Cette expression fréquemment reprise dans certains médias appuie la critique d’un État où les charges et impôts étoufferaient l’initiative privée. Derrière cette formule se devine le cœur du discours néolibéral : réduire les fonctions sociales de l'État pour laisser libre cours au fonctionnement ‘naturel’ du marché. Read More October 21, 2025 ‘Will this recognition bring back my family?’ The recognition of the State of Palestine by France is not a sudden decision, influenced by other nations; rather, it is one that the state has been working towards since July. Read More September 30, 2025 3 Ans Après le Meurtre de Mahsa Amini, un Bilan sur la Situation des Femmes en Iran Le 16 septembre 2025 marque le troisième anniversaire du décès de Mahsa Amini aux mains du régime iranien. La politique répressive envers les femmes perdure. Cependant, l’Iran a connu d'importants bouleversements à la suite de cet outrage, notamment portés par le mouvement international Femme, vie, liberté. Ces mobilisations ont-elles réellement amélioré la condition des femmes ? Trois ans après, faisons le point sur la société iranienne depuis le soulèvement Femme, vie, liberté. Read More September 30, 2025 L'OCS ou la Peur a L'Occident Le 1er septembre 2025, lors du sommet annuel de l’Organisation de Coopération de Shanghai (OCS), Xi Jinping dénonçait une « mentalité de guerre froide » et des « actes d’intimidation » visant implicitement l’administration américaine. Ces propos, repris dans de nombreux médias occidentaux, renforcent une certaine inquiétude quant à la montée en puissance de la Chine. Read More April 30, 2025 Protests in Türkiye: The Fight for “Hak, Hukuk, Adalet!” The question emerged: if a regime could erase a diploma, why wouldn't it also erase an election? After İmamoğlu was detained, hundreds of protesters took to the streets. The first act came from Istanbul University, where students gathered in front of the main gates with banners that read “Diplomamı değil, geleceğimi çaldınız!” (“You didn’t just steal my diploma, you stole my future!”). Read More April 30, 2025 Change in the Republic of Moldova Whether the new governance delivered all they had promised is of secondary importance; what matters most is that in the last four years, the country has been more open to the West than ever before.; Let us hope it will continue like this and one day, they will be a part of the greater European family. Read More March 31, 2025 Recentering the Fight Against Climate Change from Innovation to Tradition Developed across millennia and passed down through generations, Indigenous knowledge carries “ancient and intergenerational wisdom that is flexible, fluid, and adaptive.” Read More March 31, 2025 The 51st State? Trump, Absorbing Canada, Sovereignty and American Foreign Policy Trump carried strict economic goals into his second term, imposing trade tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico to help stunt immigration into the U.S. While his economic nationalism persists, Trump’s threats of annexation peel back a new layer of his foreign policy plan. Read More February 28, 2025 Tug-of-War: Chinese and American Shared Interest in Greenland Greenland has become a focal point of strategic competition between the U.S. and China, with a mutual struggle risking triggering a new arena for great power rivalry. As China grapples with economic challenges and the U.S. seeks to reinforce its Arctic presence, it has become clear that Greenland could play a crucial role in shaping the future of international dynamics. Read More February 28, 2025 “Mom I arrived”: Two Years Since the Tragedy of Tempi I cannot help but be haunted by the thought that this could have been us—the idea that my family, my friends and even myself could have been the ones inside this train. Ever since then, every train that leaves the station bears with it a weight of terror, darkness, and silence… Read More February 28, 2025 The Implications of the Piraeus Port As Part Of The Belt and Road Initiative Although we cannot predict the outcomes of the significant Chinese ownership of Piraeus, the fact that Greece’s biggest port is owned by a foreign power will have an important impact on its future policies, as well as its relations with other countries. Whether Greece will be able to successfully balance in between, without completely becoming dependent on either power, is to be determined. Read More February 28, 2025 Introduction to the Cyprus Problem: History and Attempts at Solution President Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus and President Tatar of the TRNC agreed to meet in May of this year under the aegis of the UN to kickstart another round of talks for the reunification of the island. What has created what the leaders in both communities, despite their sizeable ideological gaps, see as an opportunity for reconciliation? Read More January 31, 2025 Can We Cope with COP? The first COP was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995; under a framework of international cooperation, with various required reduction targets for “developed country Parties,” COP stands as the singular format for climate negotiations in the global space. But it’s not enough anymore—if it ever was in the first place. Read More January 31, 2025 Is South Korean Democracy Threatened? Polarization of society and the rise of far-right rhetoric can very well be found in many other democracies, but South Korea is an example of two things in particular: an extreme attempt at suppressing the opposition and functioning democratic institutions. Read More January 31, 2025 The Syrian Question We all heard that the Assad regime toppled after 50 years of dictatorship. However, recent history taught us that such overthrows and their subsequent reforms are illusory in the end, seductive at first and inevitably and ultimately evanescent. Will this be the case for Syria? Will it repeat the history of its neighbors? And if not, will it become an Islamic republic, as the actual leaders seem to desire? Read More January 31, 2025 Embedding Sustainability Constitutionally What is a government saying to its people by enshrining the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment? It marks this right as one that it will prioritize, as “the protection of the natural environment is an obligation of the state.” The difference this amendment brings, alongside pioneering cases in Europe, is that citizens can hold their governments accountable with regard to their actions or inaction. Read More January 31, 2025 Donald Trump vs The Stock Market Many things remain unknown concerning Trump's second term, but the only thing certain is that it will not be a mundane one. Amid this pressing backdrop, U.S. markets must brace for a period of both market-oriented policies and uncertainty. Read More

December 5, 2025 Renewal of the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding The International Organization on Migration (IOM) defines the Central Mediterranean route, which passes through Libyan waters, as the “world’s deadliest migratory sea crossing” due to its dangerous waters and the scarce number of search and rescue operations. In 2022 alone, 1,417 people departing from Libya died along the route, while an additional 56,515 people were intercepted and returned to Libya. Read More November 26, 2025 What Women Learn to Endure: How Early Socialization Shapes the Structural Roots of Intimate Partner Violence On average, 24% of women within the EU face Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). In Finland this figure rises to 30% with Denmark being even higher at 32%. In the context of the Nordics, 28% and 27% of Swedish and Norwegian women experienced IPV respectively. These relatively high statistics are described as the Nordic paradox, which explores why countries that are often described as models of egalitarianism face the highest rates of IPV. Read More November 15, 2025 Syria's Invisible Wounds: When Justice Must Rebuild What Violence Destroyed During Human Rights Week, I had the opportunity to hear from Noura Ghazi, a Syrian human rights lawyer and founder of Nophotozone. Her reflections centered on the wounds that linger beneath the surface — wounds inflicted by years of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearances. At the conference “Syria in 2025 : Justice, Memory, and the Road Ahead,” Ghazi addressed one of the most painful chapters in Syria’s recent history. She spoke about the chaotic and sudden opening of prisons controlled by the regime and the dark consequences that followed. Read More November 13, 2025 Beyond Ceasefires: Building Lasting Peace with Art From Shatila to Menton, artist Maryam Samaan turns puppets and knitting into spaces for healing and dialogue. Read More November 11, 2025 Quand le Caire faisait rêver le monde arabe, l’âge d’or du cinéma égyptien. Dans son ouvrage Arab Cinema : History and Cultural Identity (1998), Viola Shafik affirme que l’Egypte était le premier pays arabe à produire une industrie cinématographique dont la production était supérieure, en quantité, à celui des autres nations arabes. Read More April 30, 2025 The Price of Blood: Syria’s Alawites and the Cost of Power Syria’s post-Assad experiment will be judged not only by who governs, but by how it treats those on the losing side of power. Will justice be pursued through institutions, or through revenge? Will Syria embrace unity, or settle into division? These are not abstract questions. They are matters of life and death, national identity and regional balance. Read More April 30, 2025 Syria Today: Post-Assad Turmoil and Efforts to Rebuild Syria’s road to recovery will likely be a tumultuous one—economic frailty, sectarian violence and external pressures weigh upon the government’s next steps. But for the first time in over a decade, the possibility of Syrian-led reconstruction can be seen as within reach. Read More April 30, 2025 The Future of Air Warfare: Sixth-Generation Aircraft & the Race for China, Europe & the U.S. Just as the early 20th century saw an arms race over battleships, today’s world is entering a new era of aerial arms competition, where superiority is not only measured by performance but also by how well systems communicate, adapt and dominate. Ultimately, the effectiveness of these next-generation systems will not be fully known until they are tested—not in simulations, but in war. Read More April 30, 2025 « Tombez amoureux de l’Europe ! » Le message d’espoir du président Enrico Letta Il y a un siècle les Français et les Allemands se battaient pour déplacer leur frontière, aujourd’hui celle-ci ne semble même pas exister quand on la croise. » raconte Letta à l’ouverture de l’interview. Il faut trouver une histoire globale européenne, et comment cette institution bénéficie à tous les citoyens. Read More April 30, 2025 Sanctions: The Key to a Longstanding, Powerful, Authoritarian Regime Sanctions do more than empty out grocery aisles and indirectly kill the innocent recipients. While the proposed intention is to combat autocratic regimes through economic means, rather than traditional uses of violence, the effect is often counterintuitive, propping up the very regimes they aim to weaken. Read More March 31, 2025 From Paradise to Perimeter Defence: What Making the Pacific a Military Playground Means for its Indigenous People It's a smart idea—if you’re the US government. Get rid of all your pesky hazardous material on an irrelevant island 6,607 miles away from the land of the free. Burn it up, blow it up, it’s all the same. Unfortunately for everyone else, the cost-benefit analysis is slightly less clear-cut. Read More March 31, 2025 Marseille, toujours une ville d’immigration? Marseille, deuxième ville de France, port phare de la Méditerranée, permet de comprendre la complexité du rapport entre la France et l’immigration. Une sorte de « je t’aime, moi non plus », d’une réécriture de la véritable histoire de l’imigration, ou encore d’un profond melting pot urbain. D’un côté, Marseille est une des villes les plus cosmopolites de France, avec une partie de la population favorable à plus d’immigration. D’un autre, un électorat de plus en plus séduit par les discours anti-immigration du Rassemblement national (RN). Read More March 31, 2025 Hey Chat! How sustainable are you? When we speculate about the takeover of artificial intelligence, we envision robots and robots with human-like abilities toppling the human race. However, as humans continue to deplete their own environment without regard to the rights of others, it becomes more and more clear that the revolution of artificial intelligence is already underway. At this rate, it is not the machines that will destroy us, but rather ourselves. Read More February 28, 2025 America First, Migrants Last: Trump’s New Southern Border Policy Trump’s new border policy isn’t as simple as just closing the border and getting “terrorists the hell out” of the United States. It encompasses a myriad of endeavors, each dealing a blow to the U.S.’ immigration program, which comprises one-fifth of the entire world’s international migrants. Read More February 28, 2025 Corps et Conscience: L’Écriture révoltée de Nawal El Saadawi La liberté implique-t-elle nécessairement la solitude? Ou bien avons-nous, malgré tout, besoin d’un témoin, d’un appui, d’une présence pour exister pleinement? Read More February 28, 2025 Le traitement des prisonniers après la guerre dans le Haut-Karabagh (2023) Dans un communiqué de presse du 17 janvier 2025, Amnesty International appelle la communauté internationale à suivre de près ce procès, pour garantir le droit de Ruben Vardanyan à un procès équitable et à une bonne administration de la justice. Reste à voir si la communauté internationale va répondre à cet appel. Read More February 28, 2025 A Blue Planet: Let’s Talk About the Oceans Individuals, as a group, have power. We can work for ocean protection on different scales. May it be respecting the sea and its ecosystems by disposing of your waste and cigarette butts at the beach, signing petitions or working with associations. Read More February 28, 2025 The Secret Backdoor The Soviets needed a new way into the United States and Israel’s passport system was a ticking time bomb. Ultimately, the Law of Return, which was supposed to attract Jewish people from all over the world, became a golden ticket. The leniency offered by the law welcomed opportunists from the Soviet Union as well. Read More January 31, 2025 Pulp Fiction, un chef-d'œuvre culte et intemporel Véritable expérience cinématographique, l’audace narrative unique, les personnages attachants et l’esthétique inimitable de Pulp Fiction en font un chef-d’œuvre intemporel. En défiant les conventions, Quentin Tarantino a encore prouvé que le cinéma pouvait être à la fois populaire et artistique. Read More December 31, 2024 Why We All Need to Get Our Hands in the Soil Gardening is good for the body and good for the soul. Getting your hands into some steamy compost and picking out handfuls of weeds is a meditation—a respite from the fast-paced hustle and bustle of our increasingly rushed lives. I have certainly found that it’s very difficult to be unhappy when you’re collecting handfuls of fresh greens for dinner or flicking caterpillars off broccoli leaves. And if you get to share a garden’s produce with others, the happiness surely multiplies. Read More

November 13, 2025 The Mediterranean Charm: Why Writers and Painters Keep Coming Back to This Sea On a tranquil Mentonnais weekend, two weeks before the midterms rush, I boarded a train bound for Antibes. As I wandered through its cobbled streets, the Mediterranean shimmered next to me, breathing light into every corner of the city; a scene not so different from that of my hometown in Alexandria, Egypt. Apparently, this feeling of familiarity with this vast blue sea is nothing new—a feeling shared by many people no matter on which shore one is standing. Read More November 10, 2025 “When They Tell You to Sing, You Just Sing.”: The Khmer Rouge’s Musical Manipulation of Cambodian Society “If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Read More October 23, 2025 Is being a Virgin as Cool as Being a BRAT? : A Review of Lorde’s Latest Studio Album BRAT was summer. BRAT was coming to terms with your suppressed desires, the hate you bore and the complicated friendships you were a part of. The fun, the ugly and the embarrassing. It was about the euphoria of partying into the light of early summer mornings and the walks of shame back home. Drug abuse, sex, and all other kinds of highs of life was what BRAT encompassed. It encouraged difficult conversations about fertility and friendship, revealing that fame doesn’t equate feelings getting spared or receiving grace. Read More October 5, 2025 Is Romance Dead?: How Reality TV Shows Reflect Modern Dating How does watching strangers fall in love on national television reflect the most complicated parts of our emotional lives – dating? The transition from heartful romcoms to dating shows such as Love Island, Love is Blind or Too Hot to Handle perhaps indicate romance has died. Read More September 30, 2025 Politicizing the Heartland: The Conservative Instrumentalization of Country Music Given country music’s association with the American South and its conservative majority, it is difficult to ignore the correlation of country music's revival with the rise of the far-right in the US. However, can one link these phenomena? Is country music inseparable from conservatism? Read More September 28, 2025 Americans on the Riviera At the start of the 1920s, although hard to imagine today, the Riviera was practically deserted during the summer months. Hotels and restaurants catering to the European elite would close shop after spring, as their wealthy patrons would leave for colder climates. The Murphys were the first to convince hotels in Antibes to stay open during the summer months, as a way to host their American friends. Thus beginning the transformation of the Riviera into the summer destination it is today. Read More September 28, 2025 Threads of Memory: The Story of Palestinian Tatreez In Palestine, threads carry stories. Each stitch of tatreez — the traditional Palestinian embroidery — embodies memory, identity, and resilience. On a quiet afternoon, an elderly woman sits with fabric in her lap, weaving patterns passed down through generations. Read More September 27, 2025 The Pen, the Camera, and the Microphone: The Egyptian Kit of Soft Power The truth is this: Egypt has never ruled merely by sword or throne. Its empire was always one of imagination, where a pen could be sharper than steel, a song louder than artillery, and a camera brighter than any spotlight. The world may forget armies, but it remembers stories. And Egypt has always known how to tell them. Read More April 30, 2025 “Clean Girl” or “White Girl”? Exploring Racial Double Standards in the Fashion Industry It’s time to embrace these styles as more than just ‘trends’, but as a long-lived facet of Black culture. Recognizing the enormous influence that Black communities have had on fashion and aesthetics will allow for the long-overdue dismantling of structural hegemonies, which not only ignore Black culture but also build an alarming double standard between races in the fashion industry. Read More April 30, 2025 Thrifting and the Price of Exclusion: Gentrifying Secondhand Stores in Toronto The question of immorality does not pertain to the act of thrifting itself, but how the thrift environment has been redesigned to serve corporate interests at the expense of those it was initially designed to support. Read More March 31, 2025 Who is “Saving” Europe? In the digital age, the responsibility of verifying and trusting information falls on us, the users. While content under the branding of Save Europe might not be falsified, it is deliberately presented with emotional imagery, evocative music and slogans—blurring the line between political activism and propaganda. Read More March 31, 2025 Fasting, not a dividing element after all Fasting in different religions does not divide us. It just makes us realize how similar we are, how we have the same needs, temptations and desires. And that’s precisely what I realized when I came to Menton, a campus full of diversity—ethnically, culturally and religiously. At the core, we are all the same… Read More March 31, 2025 Love is in the Air? Une Lutte Contre le Vent If the campus is about 70% female and 30% male, and of the women, 75% are available and heterosexual, and of the men, about half are gay and maybe 25% are in a relationship, how many available, straight men does that leave for the single women, keen and looking? No need to do the math. We are not all EcoSoc majors. To put it simply, the answer is not a lot. Read More March 31, 2025 Le racisme aussi peut être pluraliste Sans qu’on puisse mettre un trait d’égalité entre le RN et la Nouvelle droite, il faut saisir l’apport essentiel de cette mouvance à l’extrême-droite tant sur le plan idéologique que sur la formation intellectuelle de ses cadres. La Nouvelle droite est une entreprise de blanchiment car derrière le ‘pluralisme’ dont elle se targue, se cache directement le nazisme et le néo-fascisme terroriste. La grande blanchisserie aujourd’hui est le Rassemblement national. Read More March 31, 2025 With Prada and Ten Protagonists on to a new self-destruction feminism Feminism does not always require being vocal, an activist, or engaging in mass mobilization. Sometimes resisting is retreating—in the choice to withdraw from cultural pressures knowingly. Dissociative feminism expands the scope of what feminist action can entail. Read More March 31, 2025 A Review of the Oscars The Oscars, once regarded as the highest award form of artistic recognition, have increasingly been subject to scrutiny over their selection process, inclusivity and cultural relevance. While the ceremony continues to attract global attention for viewers tuning in from all over the globe, one cannot help but ask: is the Academy truly honoring the best in cinema, or is it simply reinforcing the industry’s biases and political inclinations? Read More March 31, 2025 The Southern Preacher’s Goth Daughter If the South is so deeply religious—it quite literally has been termed the ‘Bible Belt’ during cultural and political descriptions—why is it so drawn to horror? The answer lies in the paradox that envelops faith itself. To believe in heaven is to acknowledge that hell also exists. The belief in salvation is not complete without the recognition of sin. The South, with its religion and belief in divine punishment, has always and will always be a place where horror feels natural. Read More March 31, 2025 Trends In Tourism: Solo Travelling and Slow Tourism For us, Sciences Pistes, there are endless options, often just a click away on a lazy Monday morning, when the teacher is particularly uninteresting. The flight tickets are cheap, flying is fast and time is limited. We, Sciences Pistes, are respectful, interested in different cultures and exploring the hidden gems—not just the touristy areas. Read More February 28, 2025 All Roads Lead To Hollywood: What Do Golden Globes Teach Us About The Film Industry? So what do the Golden Globes teach us about the film industry? Apart from the obvious elitism and unreasonable standards it sets in most aspects of our lives, it highlights the necessity of appreciating one's work. In some cases, it emphasizes the importance of sharing happy moments with those who understand and support you. Perhaps from a more career-focused point of view, the awards also present a wonderful opportunity for filmmakers, actresses, and actors to get widespread recognition. Read More February 28, 2025 Pouring One Out for the Pub “Sweet Caroline, Good times never felt so good” are the words that personify the pub, but as reality hits, how much longer will the croons of Neil Diamond sound true? Read More

April 30, 2025 Singing through Grief – Collective Memory through Music Music has a strange sort of power; it can outlive the moments it was originally made for. You’ll Never Walk Alone has transcended Liverpool. Celtic fans sing it in Scotland, as well as Dortmund fans in Germany. It’s been sung in times of crisis—after terrorist attacks, during the pandemic and other acts of remembrance. But it will forever belong to Hillsborough first. It is sacred in the way a national anthem can become sacred, or a funeral hymn. You’ll Never Walk Alone began as a ballad of hope and then a cry for justice. Read More December 31, 2024 Seeing Red: Conservatism and Combat Sports If the right wing, as they have in the past, continue to capitalize on the sport’s inherent conservative inclinations, not only will they see victories on fight night, but on election night too. Read More October 31, 2024 Playing Switzerland: An Unfair Game The problem with playing Switzerland, playing neutral, is that it is not a fair game. Ban the state, and innocent athletes suffer. Do not ban the state, and those harmed by the state suffer instead. The sport of neutrality has no simple rules. And the question remains: how can sporting governing bodies criticize aggressor states while staying true to their values of inclusivity and togetherness through sport? Read More October 31, 2024 Restless Relocations: The Hard Breaks Between City’s and their Sports Teams 56 seasons. 21 playoff appearances. 6 American League Pennants and 4 World Series Championships: the Athletics’ storied time in Oakland came to an end late this September with a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers, their final game in the city’s Coliseum. Read More October 31, 2024 Eternal Enemies: PSG vs Olympique de Marseille Ultras, celebrations, anthems, hatred and violence are often associated with football. Coming from a country where the derby between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos brings out some of the best ultras in the world, I came to discover what happens in my new country of residence, France. Read More March 30, 2024 Formula 1: Are the Gulf Countries “Sportswashing”? The recent increase in the number of races held in the Arabian Peninsula comes from the rise in investment from the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, which is currently advocating for the addition of a second race in Qiddiya. Read More January 31, 2024 2024: Year of the Bike on the Côte d’Azur As it’s a Saturday afternoon, and as I am a creature of habit, I almost automatically bundle my bike out of my apartment. Read More October 31, 2023 Focusing on the Figures: Insight into the War in Ukraine Through the Lens of Figure Skating Figure skating is an integral part of Russian culture and identity. It is the amalgamation of Russian persistence in sacrifice, the current government’s propensity to reject all things Western, and above all, the pathway to repairing the fragmented prestige of years past. Read More March 31, 2023 Qatar Bids for Manchester United Football, once dubbed the “beautiful game,” has become the epicenter of sports washing, a newly coined term that refers to ways in which countries invest in sports to promote their reputation and deflect attention from their less favorable activities. Qatar is not alone in this. Read More February 28, 2023 February Sports Recap Sports Recap — February 2023 Read More February 28, 2023 Menton à Risoul: Sciences Pistes Spend Last Week of Break at Annual BDS Ski Trip Despite a few hiccups and more than a few drunk incidents, the ski trip was a tremendous success. Sciences Pistes faced their fears on the mountain, and they are stronger for it. Going into the second semester of the year, there is undoubtedly a tighter connection between us than ever before Read More January 31, 2023 Morocco's World Cup Success Sends the World a Powerful Statement The success of the Moroccan team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup has disrupted the traditional balance of football. It has shown how the unassuming underdogs can, with the right combination of teamwork, persistence, and a steadfast, strong-willed, bald-headed coach — Walid Regragui, nicknamed “avocado head”— attain new heights. Read More January 31, 2023 Le Football, Source de Miracles Pour l'Argentine? Même les leaders politiques les plus charismatiques de l'histoire de l'Argentine n'ont pas réussi ce que l'équipe dirigée par Messi a réussi : imprégner l'âme de près de 46 millions d'Argentins de la fierté d'appartenir à la nation argentine. Read More January 31, 2023 January Sports Recap Sports Recap — January 2023 Read More December 31, 2022 Analyzing the Morality of the World Cup: Boycotts, Forced Labor and Human Rights Although the human rights violations in Qatar and its threat to the environment are alarming, it is of the utmost importance that one approaches the situation holistically. Forced labor, environmental threats and the kafala system gained attention due to World Cup boycott conversations. While the tournament has already occurred, it is paramount to not discard these issues in future discourse. Read More December 31, 2022 December Sports Recap Sports Recap – December 2022 Read More October 31, 2022 October Sports Recap Sports Recap – October 2022 Read More September 30, 2022 The 2022 Qatar World Cup Has a Dark Side The sheer joy that usually accompanies the World Cup approach has been tainted this year. Qatar, the next World Cup site, continues to raise human rights concerns. Read More April 29, 2022 Critique du Film “Le Stade” Le film, réalisé par Eric Hannezo et Matthieu Vollaire, est une magnifique plongée dans l’aventure d’une saison, au sein du vestiaire du Stade Toulousain. Read More April 29, 2022 Sports Recap: April Sports Recap – April 2022 Read More

Search Results All (395) Other Pages (392) Forum Posts (3) 395 items found for "" Other Pages (392) Politics of Art: Greece’s Quest to Reclaim its Parthenon < Back Politics of Art: Greece’s Quest to Reclaim its Parthenon By Barna Sólyom March Since its independence from the Ottoman Empire, Greece has been trying to regain its various historical artifacts from foreign powers that ruled over it. This struggle’s symbolic focus is the main building of Athens’ Acropolis, the Parthenon, specifically its decorative elements and pieces. These statues are up to 2,500 years old and were the fortress’ main sight until the early 19th century. The British Empire’s then-ambassador to Ottoman-controlled Greece was Thomas Bruce, more famously known as Lord Elgin, under whose control around half of the Parthenon was removed and transported to London, where he later sold the marbles to the British Museum. This action was already heavily criticized by his contemporaries, even in the United Kingdom, most famously by Lord Byron, who even wrote a passage dedicated to it in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812): “Cold is the heart, fair Greece, that looks on thee, Nor feels as lovers o’er the dust they loved; Dull is the eye that will not weep to see Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed By British hands , which it had best behoved To guard those relics ne’er to be restored. Curst be the hour when their isle they roved, And once again thy hapless bosom gored, And snatched thy shrinking Gods to northern climes abhorred!” Lord Elgin’s action set an infamous precedent, as cultural vandalism --- when cultural treasures are illegally taken from one country to another, was named after him: elginism . His action, of course, was not the first of its kind; for thousands of years, it was a “common” practice during conflicts to pillage. Nor was it the last act of elginism. Why are the marbles not back in Greece yet? When Greece gained independence in 1832, the government immediately started campaigning to retrieve the artifacts, as the Acropolis is one of the most important symbols of the Greek national identity. However, the historical circumstances did not allow Greece to have a large influence on the British Empire, which was in its prime, having the largest overseas empire the world has ever seen. After the two world wars, the balance of power shifted, and the United Kingdom lost a lot of its former might and hard power. However, this change in influence did not change the artifacts’ situation because the British Museum Act of 1963 prevented the institution from permanently removing objects from its collections. Thus, by U.K. law, the museum can not give back the marbles. The 1983 National Heritage Act also considers them national heritage, further strengthening the British side, whose argument assumes that the sculptures were purchased legally. Consequently, the ownership is lawfully under the museum's for 200 years. However, Greece suggests that the sculptures are in the United Kingdom due to plunder and vandalism, as their seller basically took the statues and shipped them away, thereby denying the legality of the museum’s purchase. Greece also commonly refers to UNESCO’s multiple rulings against elginism and cultural vandalism, such as the 1954 Hague Convention, the 1970 Convention, the 1972 Convention, and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention. International pressure also mounts on the British Museum to return other objects, further strengthening the Greek argument, as other artifacts like the Benin Bronzes have been repatriated. With the Vatican returning three parts of the Parthenon to Greece last December, all eyes are on Britain to make a similar conciliatory move. The debate is not solved yet; both sides defend their argument, not just on the museum level but even in higher political positions. In January, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the country is seeking a constructive solution. However, the government’s position has not changed on the topic, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis put the Parthenon’s reassembly as one of his primary goals for his re-election campaign this year. The Deutsche Welle reports that discussion between the two parties is open. Still, a sudden position change is unlikely — a short-term loan from the British Museum is the foreseeable solution. Egypt and Israel: Quiet Beneficiaries of the Energy Crisis < Back Egypt and Israel: Quiet Beneficiaries of the Energy Crisis By Noor Ahmad October The global energy crisis began in October 2021 with the backdrop of resurgent demand from the re-opening of economies following the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, China’s post-Covid recovery led to a demand for gas that is said to have risen by 8.4 percent. Gas imports are set to increase by 20 percent to satisfy this demand, resulting in less gas available for import to many European countries from gulf countries, such as Qatar, who could not ramp up natural gas supplies to Europe, as they were committed to their long-term contracts with Asian countries. The other major event that undoubtedly catalyzed the energy crisis was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplied around 40 percent of the European Union’s gas consumption by pipeline, and the 75 percent cut to supply has significantly affected European countries which have relied on Russian gas for years. Russia started to reduce its supply of gas in 2021 on the pretext of maintenance to its major gas pipelines into Europe. This accelerated in the early part of 2022, when gas flow reduced by about 40 percent through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, one of the major conduits of gas from Russia to Europe. By July of this year, the flow of gas through Nord Stream 1 was reduced to 20 percent of its capacity. On Sept. 30, a series of under-water explosions damaged both Nord stream 1 and 2 pipelines, most likely the result of sabotage. The union has not published its findings, but many suspect Russia to be the culprit. Amidst this chaos, two unexpected beneficiaries have been Egypt and Israel. The benefits have not only been economic but also political. Egypt, following the major discovery of offshore gas in 2015 by the Italian company ENI in the Zohr gas field, has been investing in its scope for exportation through the development of its gas liquefaction capacity. Liquefied natural gas has become a major method of transporting gas where piping gas is not possible. According to reports, Egypt now ranks in the top ten countries in the world with gas exporting capacity. Part of this success is due to its links with Israel through the Arab Gas Pipeline, which is used by Israel to export piped gas to Egypt for liquefaction and then is re-exported. Israel has become a significant gas exporter in recent years. It relies on its two major gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, both offshore fields off its coast. Leviathan, which was discovered in 2010, has the capacity to supply Israel’s domestic needs for the next 40 years. Tamar gained significance around the same time. Most recently, in 2022, 60 billion cubic meters of gas was discovered in the Olympus Area, also in the Mediterranean. By some estimates, Israel, which currently exports 10 million cubic meters a year, has the capacity to more than double this in the coming years by investing further. For both countries, the rising price of gas and their export capacity have provided much needed hard currency to support their economies. Egypt’s economy has been severely impacted by rising commodity prices, particularly wheat, which is a mainstay for its population’s bread consumption. At the same time, sanctions on Russia have affected Egypt’s tourism industry, which relies on Russian tourists. In Israel’s case, a recent report published by the Ministry of Energy showed Israel’s profits from natural gas increased by almost 50 percent. Eleven percent of royalties from revenues from natural gas go directly to the treasury to fund state expenditure. Beyond this, Israel set up its own sovereign wealth fund, The Israeli Citizens’ Fund, to benefit from the increase in gas production; it raises its revenues from taxing excess profits. After a disappointing start, the fund, according to the Israeli Tax Authorities, was expected to collect between 300-$500 million dollars a year over the next decade. This turned out to be very conservative given that it raised 500 million dollars in less than three months in 2022. This fund will be invested for future generations, in line with how other sovereign wealth funds operate around the world. Beyond economics, the two countries’ geopolitical situations have also benefited. The European Union signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt, Israel and itself in June 2022 to increase the export of Israeli gas. What has surprised many has been the union’s silence on the values it has held so dear for many years. Both Egypt and Israel have been targeted for various humanitarian issues – the Egyptian military regime’s treatment of dissenters is well documented. Moreover, the union has been historically vocal about Israel’s settlements and occupation of Palestinian territories and. It has been widely noted that the memorandum signed was the first in which the union failed to mention the Palestinian territories. A question was raised on the matter in the union’s parliament to the European Commission on the subject. A response on July 28, 2022 to the question, given by the Vice-President of the commission, Borrell Fontelles, stated that as this is a non-binding agreement, no territorial clause was deemed necessary. And while the union recommitted to abiding by United Nations Security Council resolution 2334, which calls for its member states to distinguish between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967, the omission in this instance is unusual. There is no doubt that energy politics has certainly provided a fair wind for both Egypt and Israel. Ressa and Muratov: The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates of Whom the World is in Dire Need. < Back Ressa and Muratov: The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates of Whom the World is in Dire Need. By Georgia McKerracher October We have all heard of the Nobel Peace Prize, whether through an influential historical actor whose name and achievements have popped up in a class, or as a term thrown around to poke fun at a friend. However, while we all know the Peace Prize itself has a long history, this year’s recipients are especially remarkable. We are in an era where freedom of expression is experiencing continuous global challenges, with a divergence between nations where individuals are thought to have too much access to free speech to preach hatred unaccountably, and others in which authoritarian leaders are incrementally increasing their overarching power to repress civil society. Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov are the leaders we need to celebrate to understand the fundamental place of free speech in any and all human societies. First awarded in 1901 and 137 times since, the Nobel Peace Prize is one of five pieces established by Swedish entrepreneur Alfred Nobel, bestowed upon individuals who have committed the most to “fraternity between nations… [and] the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Nobel himself never left provision in his will for the specific peace prize, but as a chemical engineer, the prize areas of physics and chemistry were understandable choices. A committee of five members designated by the Norwegian parliament annually selects the recipient (or in this case, recipient s ), though it remains decidedly unclear why he designated a Norwegian committee to bestow the award in his name. There have been to date 28 organizations and 975 Nobel Prize laureates who have been awarded a prize, the youngest of whom was Mala Yousafzai in 2014 at the age of 17. Only two laureates have declined the prize, including Jean-Paul Sartre in allegiance with his history of revoking all honors, and Le Duc Tho for his role in negotiating the Vietnam Peace Accord with Kissinger. However, only 58 recipients have been awarded to females. In 2021, the prize was jointly awarded to Ressa and Muratov for “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression… a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist who co-founded the online political journalism company Rappler in 2012 alongside three other female journalists. She had spent almost 20 preceding years as a lead Southeast-Asia investigative correspondent for CNN. Born in 1963, Ressa was raised by a single mother due to her father’s passing when she was only one. Her mother subsequently emigrated to the United States, leaving the juvenile Ressa under the care of her father’s family. Ressa then moved to the US herself at the age of 10, to New Jersey. She attended Princeton and graduated with a degree in molecular biology, topped off with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre and dance. She is also the first ever Nobel Prize recipient from the Philippines. Ressa was announced as Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ in 2018; one of multiple journalists featured for her work combating misinformation and fake news globally. Ressa’s career, however, has not been without hardships. After being arrested in February 2019 by Filipino authorities, Ressa was found guilty in June 2020 for cyberlibel in People of the Philippines v Santos, Ressa and Rappler under contentious Anti-Cybercrime legislation criticized incessantly by human rights defense groups as undermining freedom of the press, a “shameless act of persecution by a bully government.” The judicial decision was both domestically and internationally criticized as a biased and political one due to Ressa’s incessant denouncement of Philippine President Duterte. Former US Secretary of State openly denounced the conviction as something to be “condemned by all democratic nations.” Muratov has by no means taken an easier path within his career. For decades, he has worked ceaselessly to defend freedom of speech within an increasingly restrained Russia. Born in 1961, Muratov studied Philology at Samara State University for several years, to which he attributes his love of journalism. Since as far back as 1993, Muratov has acted as a director of the independent socio-political newspaper Novaya Gazeta, acting as editor-in-chief for an incredible 24 years. Interestingly, the establishment of the organization was aided through the Nobel Prize money received by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. The Moscow-published tri-weekly newspaper is known in Russia for its critical investigative coverage of politics. Since 2000, seven journalists have been murdered in connection with human rights and political investigations on behalf of the newspaper. Undoubtedly, the Nobel Peace Prize committee’s statement that Ressa and Muratov have battled a “courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia” is by no means an understatement. The Committee further stated that the two icons represent on a wider scale “all journalists who stand up” for democratic ideals, under global conditions in which “democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.” Congratulations have poured in for the recipients, including from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, urging a continuation of the international struggle to defend the freedom of the press and of expression and recognizing the “fundamental role” of the media in preserving democratic interests. During this global pandemic, numerous self-interested leaders have been offered an opportunity on a silver-platter to implement controls to further their own access to executive powers. Since 2016, the United Nations has published warnings of the serious threats media freedom has been facing, but there has since been a further notable increase in attacks on journalistic integrity, and even personal safety, during the pandemic. According to Freedom House, 2019 marked the 15th year of consecutive decline in global freedom. Military or police in 18 nations have physically abused outspoken journalists. At least 83 governments globally have used the pandemic as direct justification for the violation of the right to free speech, some of which have detained, attacked, prosecuted, or even killed opponents. Hence, it is clear that in the current climate, the decisions of the Nobel Committee have been more relevant than ever. Despite early criticisms of politically-motivated choices, the decision to honor Muratov and Ressa with the award has appropriately come at a time when the world requires journalistic leadership against oppressive governance more than ever. 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