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Division colors our everyday existence, but do we understand it? From where does the phenomena of polarization arise? In what way does the human psyche interact with digital platforms? How is technology being harnessed to sustain conflict and control the spread of information? And how does this impact our society at large? All this and more will be discussed in the upcoming Student Agora TEDx conference on April 9. < Back The Event of the Year: Student Agora Brings TEDx to Menton By Saoirse Aherne March 31, 2022 Our generation has witnessed the world become increasingly polarized. We were raised on technology which drives conflict, swings elections, fractures families, and facilitates the manipulation of millions. Division colors our everyday existence, but do we understand it? From where does the phenomena of polarization arise? In what way does the human psyche interact with digital platforms? How is technology being harnessed to sustain conflict and control the spread of information? And how does this impact our society at large? All this and more will be discussed in the upcoming Student Agora TEDx conference on April 9. We hope that in the process of understanding these issues, the means by which they can be overcome will begin to take form. Division. Dilemma. Dialogue. The Student Agora has been a presence on the Menton campus since 2016, though it has since gained the TEDx logo. However Agora has always aimed to create a platform for honest dialogue pertaining to contemporary issues. Agora president, Orianna Merer, underlines that the association connects actors within the Menton campus, drawing in artistic talent and consulting expertise from other student-led organizations. But beyond this, Agora aims to involve the community of Menton as a whole by inviting local residents to the April 9th event. Agora - The marketplace in Athens, used for popular meetings, or any similar place of assembly in ancient Greece. The name of this organization encapsulates its mission to create a meeting space where ideas can be explored and developed. In this pursuit, Agora emulates the values of our campus community; we aim to question all that we perceive, we seek to challenge our worldviews, and we build spaces in which productive and authentic discussion flourishes. Each year, the Student Agora organizes a conference, drawing in external and internal speakers to discuss a common theme. The first Agora conference was hosted in 2017, centered on the theme “Dare to Know.” This event showcased a Nobel prize nominee, a Middle East Broadcasting Center spokesperson, and a Syrian online celebrity among other impressive internal and external speakers. Since then, the Agora has continued to facilitate discussion surrounding topics such as “Walls and Shadows” in 2018, “Tales of Expression” in 2019, and “(R)evolutions: Motions for Change” in 2021. Moreover, the Agora has brought the world to Menton and Menton to the world by connecting a network of activists, journalists, filmmakers, politicians, correspondents, and even a Nobel peace prize winner, with the students of our campus. Though the mission of Agora has been interrupted by the presence of COVID-19 over the past two years, Agora returns in 2022 stronger than ever. This year, the conference will be centered around the theme of “Division, Dilemma, and Dialogue,” with a focus on the role of digital platforms in the phenomenon of polarization. Merer notes that what makes Agora so special is the diverse array of internal and international speakers who participate in the conference. She underlines the value of providing an equal platform on which both students and experts can share their experience. According to Merer, an excellent roster of internal speakers has been selected to present at the upcoming conference, from Ismaeel Yaqoob, who will discuss the means to create productive dialogue on campus, to Ferida Altun and Carmen Guintrand, who will explore the instrumentalization of political identities in the upcoming French election. Attendees of the Agora conference can look forward to six thoughtful and provocative speeches from some of our very own Mentonese SciencesPistes on April 9. This year's external speakers are equally as impressive, coming from across the MENA region, North America, and Europe. Each of the external speakers is described in greater detail below: Daoud Kuttab Daoud Kuttab is a Palestianian journalist, media activist and former professor of journalism at Stanford University. Currently, Kuttab is the director general of a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and advancing independent media in the Arab world. At Agora 2022, Daoud Kuttab will be discussing how journalists in the MENA region can overcome censorship. Remy Dandan Remy Dandan is a French lawyer and YouTuber. On this platform, Dandan provides legal and personal perspective on fundamental rights and freedoms in French public law. Makram Rabah Makram Rabah is a lecturer in the Department of History at the American University of Lebanon and author of a number of books, notably “A Campus at War: Student Politics at the American University of Beirut, 1967-1975.” At Agora 2022, Rabah will be discussing the assassination of his friend at the hands of Hezbollah and the subsequent efforts of cyber armies to silence calls for justice. Rabah will explore threats to freedom of speech in the digital sphere in the context of Lebanon, pairing his insight as a seasoned professor with personal anecdote. Gary Klein Gary Klein is a senior scientist at MacroCognition LLC and a research psychologist. He has developed several research and application methods such as the critical decision method and the knowledge audit for doing cognitive task analysis. Klein was a pioneer in the development of the field of naturalistic decision making. At Agora 2022, Klein will help to contextualize the psychology behind polarization and decision making in conflict situations. Amanda Montell Amanda Montell is a linguist and the author of two acclaimed non-fiction books; Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism and Wordslut: A feminist guide to taking back the English language . Cultish was named one of best books of 2021 by NPR. Montell is also the creator and co-host of a podcast, “Sounds Like A Cult,” which peaked at #20 on Spotify’s top podcasts in the USA. At Agora 2022, Montell will delve into the power of language as a tool for indoctrination and polarization. Ezzedine Ghlamallah Ezzedine Ghlamallah is a teacher, researcher, and doctoral student in management sciences at CERGAM. After eight years of experience in the world of finance insurance, he decided to add an ethical dimension to his career by co-founding SAAFI in 2014. SAAFI provides consulting services relating to the legal and financial feasibility of structuring insurance solutions. Ghlamallah has contributed to “ethical finance” sections in newspapers such as the Tribune, the Argus de l’Assurance, and the Huffington Post. At Agora 2022, he will provide insight into Islamic finance. Join us this April! Agora is sure to offer one of the most enriching on-campus events of the year. What makes it stand out, by Merer’s account, is the centrality of storytelling. Agora provides a place for educational growth, but in a medium that is personal and vulnerable. Agora aims to evaluate issues through the lens of human experience; an approach sometimes forgotten as we study the technicalities of social sciences here in Menton. Indeed, Merer is optimistic that the Agora event will humanize what we explore every day in class, deepening our understanding issues in the MENA region and beyond by providing a portrait of the individual experience. Places are limited so be sure to book your tickets now to partake in a true celebration of exploration and curiosity. Aid us, the Student Agora, in our mission to foster productive discussion regarding topics which have long acted as a source of conflict on our campus and in the world at large.

< Back The Pakistan Nuclear Threat Victoria Krumova October 31, 2024 On July 16, 1945—the Manhattan project—a collaboration between the USA and the UK—proved to be a success. The trinity test fireball exploded merely 16 milliseconds after ignition. This revolutionary experiment reset the course of warfare and put the stakes of having peace even higher as the threat of mass destruction became rather simple to envision. The realization of the dangers of this invention came to 20th century politicians more than 20 years after it did to the ordinary man. Following the massive shock from the catastrophic consequences of America’s two atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Japan, antinuclear movements were formed in the 1950s in the USA, with a dialectic advocating for the end of use of nuclear weapons. And though those movements lost momentum after people shifted their focus to the exploration of the potential benefits of nuclear energy, on July 1 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was signed in New York City. Despite sporadic hints and threats that have been made by governments of countries such as North Korea, the probability of them actually using their weapons remains slim. This is especially true, when they are fully aware that an engagement of arms on their side will trigger the same counteraction from other countries. Governments and governors, no matter how totalitarian, authoritarian, democratic, capitalist or communist, know the devastating consequences of such actions. They care about their people surviving and, if not about that, at least about their nations. The question is: do terrorists? The answer is most probably no. So, the following question arises: If they are not phased by the deterrence mechanism of the risk of their own country being reduced to rubble, what stops them from using nuclear weapons against their enemies if they get access to them? Pakistan is a country with a vast cultural and historical background. It is rich in its practices, it is known for the hospitality of its people, for its palatable range of languages and for its historical sites. But it is also known for its possession of nuclear weapons. In fact, it was the first Muslim country to be given the rights to own one. What it is also not known for is stability: neither territorial, nor political. To understand what prompted today’s reality into existence, we need to understand what factors gave way to the infiltration of terrorists in the country in the first place. To do that, we have to go back to the 20th century. Following the Afghan Mujahideen’s efforts to drive out the Soviets from Afghan territory, Pakistan's security services established groups by the same model to regain full control over Kashmir—an area of territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. The religious population was subjected to the tactics of Islamist groups that tried to radicalize it by citing the hadith—sayings of the Prophet Muhammad conveying values deemed proper for a Muslim to have. Given the significance of this for many Muslims, the Islamist groups expected that their rhetoric would act as a catalyst for turning the population against India and believed it would embolden Pakistan’s allies in Afghanistan. This idea, theoretically, should have worked because of sentiments of resentment against India after the violent outbursts between the two, regarding the displacements, following the partition of British India. On a second level of consideration, it should have worked because of the establishment of Pakistan as a separate state to India, with a principal difference between the two being religion. However, not only did this approach fail to achieve its goal of unifying the two populations under a common ideology, it also led to further divisions due to the distinct interpretations of the proposed radical ideologies. What this meant was that different fractions of Pakistan’s population found themselves on different parts of the spectrum with the following extremes: strong support for the Jihad groups and participation in the USA’s “War on terror. ” Pakistan’s geographical location also means it finds itself close to constantly evolving conflicts that fuel instability throughout the whole region. Besides the longstanding conflict with India that has been destabilizing Islamabad’s position on the international scene for decades now, the proximity to neighboring Afghanistan has meant further undermining of Pakistan’s political position. The Taliban at first gave false hope of alliance to the Pakistani government, as it thought it had found an ally in fighting against the liberal Afghan groups aligned with India, and then took that hope away by starting to act against Pakistan. In January 2023, a branch of the Taliban— Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan— operating on the premises of Pakistan’s territory claimed responsibility for a suicide mission killing 59 people in a mosque in the city of Peshawar. This same organization’s motives for acting against Pakistan lay in its disagreement to the country’s mutual effort with the US in the “war on terror.” Because the reasons for the installment of terrorism on Pakistan’s territory lay in ever-relevant factors—religion and geopolitics—new groups are bound to continue being established. The pluralism in religious aspirations in both spiritual and practical (territorial) aspects lead to the desire of different radical believers and opportunists to try and impose their interpretation of “what should be” on the state. Thus, organizations, such as the Islamic State Khorasan Province , that were formed as late as 2015, can be found operating simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The latter, being a branch of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, aims to establish a caliphate in the Khorasan. To achieve that, it is now recruiting some of its leaders from Pakistan and simultaneously committing atrocities on the way —shooting pregnant women and nurses in hospitals and targeting girls’ schools. The question is: for organizations such as ISKP to have the power to inflict the horror they do, do they have the power to infiltrate Pakistan’s nuclear weapons system if they choose to do so? One also needs to be aware of the fact that radicals do have the incentive to use those nuclear weapons. It is a question of “how”, not “if”. As they interpret the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad to entail a Holy War, they in all likelihood will aim to rush to it. This becomes clear from their efforts to use said sayings to accelerate people’s wish for war with India out of hatred and therefore give rise to the promised Holy War. In the past, Pakistan has launched initiatives to battle with terrorism. In response to an attack on a military school in Peshawar in December of 2014, it initiated Operation “Zarb-e-Azb” , focusing on the North Waziristan region, known to be used as a stronghold by groups such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Chechen Islamic Jihad Union, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and other branches of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. For this operation, Pakistan faced heavy criticism because of the mass displacement of civilians it caused . Figures like Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of Afghanistan’s national directorate of security, expressed concerns about Pakistan’s ability to control terrorist groups , thus challenging the idea that the country is capable of ensuring that no unauthorized use of its nuclear arsenal will occur. After the heated interactions between India and Pakistan, following the 2019 initial attack on Indian troops in Kashmir, and Delhi’s response in launching strikes against Pakistani militants, the world waited in anticipation for the next move of the international community. However, no organization or country holds the ultimate authority to take away Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, and an act of disarmament can only be committed through mutual agreement upon having diplomatic discussions. This leads us to today, when Pakistan still has access to its nuclear arsenal. Looking at the lack of control it has over the terrorist groups acting on its territory, those groups might, sooner or later, gain access to the weapons too. That is if the government doesn't enact tangible policies to stop the continuous threat that the radicals impose with each and every next atrocity they commit. With all eyes on Gaza and Lebanon, does the next threat for an even greater number of casualties develop quietly away from the media's focus in Pakistan?

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 Une France qui s’assèche, des scientifiques qui alertent, un gouvernement qui se dépêche By Salomé Greffier March 31, 2023 « Sens-tu l’air du désert/ Te dessécher la peau/ Comme si l’on avait/ Laissé le four ouvert/ Et ce souffle brûlant/ Nous ôter le repos/ Pour venir nous donner/ Un avant-goût d’enfer ? » Laurence Hérault s’exprime en ces mots afin de décrire un phénomène observé à grande échelle par les sociétés depuis une cinquantaine d’années déjà : la sécheresse. Tandis que les populations subissent des épisodes sans qu’aucune goutte de pluie ne tombe du ciel, les scientifiques parlent d’avancée du désert et les pouvoirs publics tentent de proposer des alternatives économiques et sociales moins énergivores en eau. La sécheresse, fait désormais l’objet d’observations rigoureuses et constitue un enjeu majeur pour les États. En outre, le dernier rapport du GIEC publié en 2022 tire la sonnette d’alarme quant à la fréquence des périodes de sécheresse à travers le monde dans les années à venir. Ces dernières devraient devenir plus régulières, voire permanentes, impliquant une remise en question de la gestion de l’eau à l’échelle individuelle mais aussi collective, au regard des comportements agricoles principalement. Le groupe d’experts intergouvernemental place l’activité humaine comme responsable de ces phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes. Par conséquent, seule une adaptation anthropique face à cet enjeu climatique (mais aussi socio-économique, politique et qui atteint plus généralement la santé publique) permettrait d’inverser, ou du moins de ralentir, le processus en cours. Pour le moment, les baromètres français affichent un record historique inquiétant. En effet, à la date du 21 février 2023, les météorologues cochent la case d’un 31ème jour sans pluie sur le sol de l’hexagone. Or, en plein milieu de l’hiver, l’eau des pluies devrait remplir les nappes phréatiques afin de répondre aux besoins des mois d’été. Février se termine donc avec un déficit de précipitations de 75 %. En d’autres termes, la situation actuelle est celle que l’on chiffre, en temps normal, autour de la mi-avril voire de mai. Les réserves souterraines en eau se trouvent par conséquent à des niveaux particulièrement bas alors que la saison estivale de 2022 avait déjà puisé plus d’or bleu que la nature pouvait apporter. Dans le même temps, il ne faut pas omettre les inégalités territoriales en matière d’exposition à la sécheresse. Ainsi, les scientifiques décrivent un phénomène plus fort dans des régions comme l’Occitanie, la région PACA ou encore la Corse. De manière plus générale, une analyse du quotidien La Tribune de Genève avance qu' en temps normal, Nice enregistre plus de 800 mm de pluie par an. Entre février 2022 et la première quinzaine de février 2023, seuls 285 mm de précipitations se sont abattus sur la ville, soit 500 bons millimètres de moins que d’ordinaire !” Une situation qui devrait nous préoccuper en tant que (nouveaux) habitants de la région en perspective du retour de l’été. Ce constat posé par la communauté scientifique et l’observation empirique obligent les pouvoirs publics français à agir en prévention des épisodes de sécheresse. Ainsi, lors du Salon de l’agriculture 2023 le président de la République, Emmanuel Macron, s’exprime en ces termes « On sait qu’on sera confronté à des problèmes de raréfaction d’eau : plutôt que de s’organiser sous la contrainte, on doit planifier tout ça ». Un appel à la sobriété soutenu par son ministre de la Transition écologique, Christophe Béchu. Ce dernier a demandé aux préfets des sept grands bassins du territoire, le 27 février dernier, d’anticiper les pénuries et de contraindre dès à présent les particuliers et entreprises à travers des arrêtés. Le gouvernement lance alors un « plan sécheresse » pour se préparer aux difficultés à venir. Ce projet public a tout d’abord pour vocation d’adapter l’agriculture. En effet, si le chef de l’État choisit un moment comme le Salon de l’agriculture pour exprimer ses inquiétudes, c’est avant tout pour toucher une frange de la population directement concernée par la sécheresse. L’agriculture représente en France 45 % de la consommation d’eau, chiffre qui s’élève jusqu’à 80 % au cœur de l’été. Celle-ci repose sur un modèle d’irrigation trop consommateur par rapport aux ressources disponibles. Par conséquent, il est demandé aux agriculteurs d’employer la méthode du goutte à goutte ou de se procurer des outils optimisant l’usage de l’eau. Néanmoins, la mise en place de ces moyens revêt un coût économique parfois trop important pour les exploitants qui doivent en priorité répondre à des demandes de rendements et générer des bénéfices pour maintenir leurs entreprises. L’État, pour pallier à ces inégalités, a débloqué des fonds à hauteur de 20 millions d’euros pour la « protection contre la sécheresse » à destination de toutes les exploitations en espérant que ce budget soit utilisé pour lutter contre les aléas climatiques et non à des fins économiques. De plus, l’idée d’installer des compteurs capables de recenser la consommation en eau des agriculteurs est envisagée par les pouvoirs publics de la métropole. Le « plan sécheresse » se déploie également en intervenant sur les failles du réseau d’eau. Ancien, sous dimensionné et parfois mal entretenu, le système d’alimentation se doit d’être rénové pour limiter les fuites en eau potable. Chaque année, c’est en effet 20 % en moyenne d’eau potable qui s’échappent des tuyaux à cause de l’obsolescence du réseau. Ensuite, l’État a pour objectif d’accélérer le déploiement de la réutilisation des eaux usées traitées. En bout de classement européen, la France recycle seulement 1 % de ses eaux à l’heure actuelle notamment à cause d’une réglementation sanitaire stricte en vigueur. On cherche dès lors à remplacer l’eau potable nécessaire au fonctionnement et à l’entretien des stations d’épuration par de l’eau recyclée et étendre progressivement cette pratique à des usages industriels et agricoles. Enfin, la conscience écologique mariée à des intérêts socio-économiques mobilise de plus en plus les citoyens. Les Français semblent prêter davantage attention à leur consommation d’eau et soutiennent des projets tels que l’utilisation de l’eau recyclée ou de compteurs « intelligents ». La tendance à la sobriété individuelle apparaît nécessaire pour les spécialistes mais insuffisante. L’appel des experts insiste davantage sur un changement collectif des usages de l’eau et des mentalités à l’échelle globale. Il n’en demeure pas moins que le levier de l’action individuelle est une goutte d’eau essentielle à, espérons-le, un recul du désert dans les prochaines années.

Sport is key for every individual. It constitutes an integral part of human life. Essentially, it keeps us fit and sane while reinforcing mental and physical strength. Biologically, it keeps our prominent organs alert and in turn the heart becomes stronger when it is met by regular exercise. Serving as a tool to help build the character and personality of a person. Sports have gained priority in all aspects of life while uniting the people. < Back Sports as a Way of Life By Joudi Arafa November 29, 2021 Sport is key for every individual. It constitutes an integral part of human life. Essentially, it keeps us fit and sane while reinforcing mental and physical strength. Biologically, it keeps our prominent organs alert and in turn the heart becomes stronger when it is met by regular exercise. Serving as a tool to help build the character and personality of a person. Sports have gained priority in all aspects of life while uniting the people. What can be learned from Sports? Sports bring utility. Notably, they establish discipline in life as they teach the fundamentals of communication, mobility, hard work, fairness etc. Psychologically, sport advances a human's thinking ability and decreases the stress of mind. It teaches control of emotions; the essence of staying focused in attaining discipline. Consequently, how does one attain their desired levels of discipline to reach a desired goal? First and foremost, it is essential to highlight the value of discipline in shaping determination and mindset. Discipline is a crucial foundation for any sport, and also a major aspect to succeed and dominate in other areas of life, especially in one’s career. As mentioned, it assists in achieving a certain mindset towards realizing great things. Another angle that can be taken when stating the lessons learned from sports is leadership skills. Even without being the captain of the football team, all teammates gain leadership skills. Sports always encourage people to strive to be the best that they can be, acting as a role model in their surroundings. Undoubtedly, physical activity is a core mental skill because it impacts other parts of our lives, like school and relationships with family and friends. It acts as an opportunity to build self-confidence, by embracing getting along with all kinds of people. Being a part of a group is motivating by itself; there is a group energy that occurs when people come together to take part in the same fun event. To sum up, discipline and focus are just two of the life skills that sports can illustrate; responsibility, goal-setting and working within a group are all equally beneficial and vital when recognizing sports and physical activity as pillars of leading a happy healthy life. Technology in sports The world of sport is perpetually changing over the years, and the use of technology is just one area that has made an impact on many sports in the modern day. Nowadays, technology plays a significant role in sports, and its use is indeed growing significantly. Advanced technology has become more resilient and less burdensome over this last decade, paving the way for new opportunities. Athletes currently wear sensors that portray real-time information to a trainer’s tablet, a GPS that precisely pinpoints motion, and wearable tech that prevents injuries. Compared to whiteboards and post-practice reviews, technology has substantially increased athletic potential. Take, for instance, swimmers and divers who participate in an extremely technical sport and have adapted the use of sensors into their usual practices. When swimming or diving, sensors measure more than the usual time and effort metrics. They map movements like rotational speed, dive angle, leg movement and hydrodynamics. Observing movements like those listed is groundbreaking, and allows trainers to help athletes further perfect their movements. Remarkably, they may only shave milliseconds off a performance, but a millisecond in a race can make all the difference needed to secure that desired gold medal! Importance of sports for students life As mentioned, sports have a massive positive impact on both the mind and body. It is therefore imperative to assess the various benefits that a student will gain from engaging in sports activities while also attending class. One can not deny how much sports aid in the overall development and growth of a student when effectively balanced with academia. While engaging in sports activities may seem to deduct time from studying, research has shown that more active students have better cognitive abilities. Sports along with other physical activities are beneficial to the brain, which allows students to remember or understand consistently what they read. In turn, it also increases competence when planning, creating strategies, and building team work, all of which are vital skills to have when being part of society. Development from sport goes beyond learning new physical skills. Sport helps students develop better ways to cope with the highs and lows of life. Constructive use of time and discipline is a major characteristic of any sportsperson. If a student plays sports, they need to demonstrate commitment of time, to be in a particular place at a particular time every day as a part of their routine. Simply put, participating in sports encourages a mindset towards practice, growth, and improvement: principles that encourage students to also hold academically. Becoming better at a sport results in self satisfaction, and sports are an excellent way to experience tangible improvement. From improving social skills to teaching self-esteem and personal resilience, sports can instill lifelong values for students that reach far past the classroom. With that being said, let’s hear what students from our Sciences Po campus had to say when asked about staying active: Carolina MOHR, 18yrs What sport do you play? “Soccer” Why is physical activity important for you? “Mental health, specifically for focus and I also just generally feel better because of endorphins.” Samanéa Rousseau, 18yrs What sport do you play? “I did competitive swimming for 12 years and eventing in horse-riding for 10.” Why is physical activity important for you? “I liked the idea of pushing myself to see where it takes me. I liked the outcome of mixing sports and people- it brought me amazing teammates, made me travel, encounter people and places I would not have otherwise. It taught me how important connections between people are. Those people picked me up when I was at my lowest and also pushed me to do my best. Go try new things, meet people; those things will teach you a bundle of values about life that you don't even know you need. I wish it to everyone, don't be scared to make the leap because you have nothing to lose.” Lena Westlund, 18yrs What sport do you play? “Boxing” Why is physical activity important for you? “Beneficial for physical and mental health.” David Ederberg, 21yrs What sport do you play? “For most of my life I’ve been doing Krav Maga, here in Menton I mostly play Volley- and Basketball. But I also like going running and doing different workouts to stay fit.” Why is physical activity important for you? “For me, being physically active is the perfect way to clear my mind, gain new energy and to be able to better focus and concentrate on school work. I love it when after a workout you know that you really challenged yourself and accomplished something - it's the best feeling ever.”

Since the start of its European Union membership, Cyprus had sustained a reputation for unseriousness, marked by a repeated failure to solve the Cyprus problem, consistently poor rankings on environmental matters in the EU, and numerous corruption scandals. This raises the question: was this a genuinely pivotal moment, or the nail in the coffin of Cyprus’s reputation in the EU? < Back From TikToker to MEP: How Did We Get Here? Feidias Psaras Mouths were agape. With nearly one fifth of the vote, the highest share of votes secured by an independent candidate for such a post, Cyprus had elected a TikToker to be one of the six Cypriot MEPs. In a simple gray t-shirt, Fidias Panayiotou read out his victory speech from a crumpled piece of paper before the vote was fully over. ‘Today is a historic day. Not only for Cyprus, but perhaps for the entire world’, he declared. Since the start of its European Union membership, Cyprus had sustained a reputation for unseriousness, marked by a repeated failure to solve the Cyprus problem, consistently poor rankings on environmental matters in the EU, and numerous corruption scandals. This raises the question: was this a genuinely pivotal moment, or the nail in the coffin of Cyprus’s reputation in the EU? Over the course of the two months, Fidias used his social media platforms, on which he had amassed millions of followers, to spread his political message. Namely, he talked about how he didn’t have any policies to speak of, and that he was running because he believed that what mattered, and what was lacking in the current political scene, was that he truly cared about the people of Cyprus and would go to all lengths to represent them. The latter has long become a demagogic cliché; the former is much less common. A quick sift through public appearances during the lead-up drives the point home. In one of his podcast episodes, Fidias discusses the need for schooling reform, claiming that schools are prisons and that we need to diversify modes of education. The kinds of reforms he suggests, however, showcase his elementary understanding of these institutions and their resource limitation. Long-time fans, despite mostly being under the legal voting age, were fervent supporters of the political foray and were convinced of its success. To the uninitiated in matters of internet culture, the surprise came from the fact that this figure, a strange kind of ‘e-celebrity’ who was non-existent in the island’s political landscape prior to the two-month lead-up to July, was able to override decades-old party dogmatisms. To those people young enough to be on social media but not so much so as to be consistently drawn to Fidias’s content, the surprise came from a different angle. Fidias had risen to fame through a unique brand of Mr. Beast-like stuntsmanship: his videos featured him running barefoot through 21 km of snow, staying at an airport for a week and traveling across Japan by freeloading on the Shinkansen. Fidias had spent one sixth of 2022 camping outside Twitter Headquarters just to get a hug from Elon Musk. What did any of this have to do with being an MEP? With no prior training or experience in the field, and no coherent stance on domestic issues, not to mention highly technocratic ones of EU trade and regulatory policy, how was Fidias ever able to convince the people he could effectively represent them? In fact, Fidias’s shortcomings were what got him elected. Although his talent for captivating audiences and his high-outreach platforms were obvious beforehand, his lack of policies meant that he avoided being placed anywhere within the political spectrum. And during a time of erosion in the public trust toward the heretofore mainstage political party, spurred most recently by blatant corruption scandals, a growing demographic yearned for a new political formation. They were captured just as much by Feidias’s promise as by his presentation; someone who had borne out the worst public abasements on screen for the world to watch, who spoke in the simple, at times broken Cypriot dialect that so many others hid in public appearances, who wore plain t-shirts to television interviews, Fidias couldn’t even be likened to the devil you knew. He was just a guy you knew.. Far from being charismatic by the traditional standards, Fidias’s clumsiness, his passionate stuttering and his unashamed admission of something as absurd as having no policies came off as strangely endearing for a large portion of an audience that didn’t know who to trust anymore. But the slap in the face dealt to the main political parties of Cyprus was only in part a conscious statement by voters. The people who voted for Fidias because of his refusal to politically classify himself did so in part as a rejection of old party politics, but also because they found comfort in the naivete that it stemmed from. The country lacks civic engagement; in a 2020 survey, 38% of Cypriot respondents, the fourth smallest percentage, reported feeling like they were informed about Civil Society Organisations whose issues matter to them and just 11% had taken part in public consultations happening in their area, both percentages being the fourth among the 27 Member States. Moreover, 31% cited that actions of such CSOs did not impact them at all, the eighth highest in the Union. It makes sense then, for such an under-informed and disillusioned voter base to seek refuge in something they can identify with. On the other hand, Fidias’s nomination reveals a more unsettling truth about our citizens’ relationship to the EU. While Belgium and Luxembourg might hover at around a 90% voter turnout, countries like Croatia and Lithuania exhibited voter turnout in the 20s and 30s, even during an election year that has had the largest overall voter turnout in three decades. The EU is a federal system that bridges economic and legal gaps between countries, but the historic, cultural, linguistic and civic ones still remain. And to many, this superstructure that determines so much of their lives is a black box; a set of passionless institutions filled with faceless technocrats. To an extent, this is also true at the national level. It’s easier to attribute bus punctuality and cleanliness of sidewalks to good municipal organization than it is to assess the net impact of national welfare policies. Fidias’s success reveals a lot about what we need to work on moving forward. For one, it clearly illustrates the importance of modernizing strategies and channels of outreach. It reveals how political parties in Cyprus struggle to maintain trustworthiness among voters, as well as how those voters themselves are not sufficiently politically literate due to an undernourished educational and civic sector. Worryingly, it also highlights how precarious the democratic model is when it comes to EU politics. In any case, let’s hope that the Fidias phenomenon does more harm than good.

Will Al-Zawahiri’s successor irreparably fragment al-Qaeda, leading it to its dissolution, or will he unify and strengthen it, making the group more dangerous and threatening than ever before? < Back What Can We Expect From Al-Qaeda Now? By Isabella Hehl September 30, 2022 Since Joe Biden, President of the United States, authorized the deployment of two Hellfire missiles by an unmanned drone on July 31, 2022 in Kabul, killing al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the terrorist group’s future seems uncertain. While jihadist movements are known for easily replacing their emirs, bin Laden’s death in 2011 had already caused the organization to suffer structural fragmentation and it could now completely deteriorate if al-Zawahiri is not replaced with an equally charismatic and respected jihadist. Furthermore, the event resulted in tension between Afghanistan and the United States, with both sides claiming that the other violated the Doha Agreement – terms which stipulated that American military presence would gradually come to an end in Afghanistan if the Taliban follows its commitments, such as not harboring terrorist figures – and caused further insecurity for the locals in the surrounding area. Al-Zawahiri became the emir of al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid, however, by that point, the group was fractured and his followers were not as loyal to him as they had been to bin Laden. In the following years, al-Zawahiri attempted to lead far-reaching terrorist groups that often showed disloyalty and insubordination. The success of the Islamic State in its violent and cruel dominion over Iraq and Syria, especially in 2014 and 2015, overshadowed al-Zawahiri’s reputation. However, he had been bin Laden’s physician and right-hand man for years before 2011; thus he still commanded a certain degree of authority and respect from his followers, reminding them of when al-Qaeda was at its peak strength. His videotaped tirades against the U.S. had helped him assume a significant role in molding al-Qaeda to become as ambitious and deadly as it had been during the 9/11 attacks. When joining the terrorist group, he merged it with the extreme Egyptian-centric operation called Egyptian Islamic Jihad he had led, making al-Qaeda even more globally powerful. However, even his admirers conceded that he lacked the charisma for which bin Laden had been known. During al-Zawahiri’s leadership, no terrorist attack took place comparable to the scale of bin Laden’s time. As a result, al-Qaeda began to lose its control over some of its territories, most notably in greater Syria. The jihadist group fragmented into different strands, creating ISIS, which later became its greatest rival in the Islamist movement. For al-Qaeda to survive and return to its original reputation of strength and terror, the next emir must already be known among the followers and jihadists and show great magnetism and ability to unify the fragmented group. The often unspoken consequences of firing the two Hellfire missiles concern the inhabitants of Shirpur, the neighborhood in central Kabul where al-Zawahiri was residing. Syed Agha, an unemployed schoolteacher who sells vegetables from a cart, stated, “We have had so many years of war, and things were just beginning to settle down. The conflict is past, and no one should have the right to violate our sovereignty. An attack like this could badly affect our future.” A year after the Taliban seized power of Afghanistan, the country is on the threshold of economic collapse, as Kabul’s alarmed civilians responded to the killing helplessly and bitterly. 29-year-old Ezatullah explained, “I wish we had this power to defend our country. The people can’t show any reaction or anger because they cannot say what they want to and they have economic problems.” This sense of vulnerability seems common among the inhabitants of Shirpur. According to the Washington Post, a man named Abdul Wali “changing money on a sidewalk” told the paper, “I heard Joe Biden did it. This means Afghanistan still belongs to America. They can do whatever they want. If they can do a drone strike in the city, it means they are still in charge.” Indeed, the relationship between the Taliban and the United States has become even more complicated since July 31, 2022, as both claim that the other violated the terms of the Doha Agreement, which was signed in February of 2020 as the U.S. left Afghanistan. American officials claim that senior members of the Haqqani Taliban knew about al-Zawahiri’s presence in Shirpur and attempted to conceal his whereabouts, a direct violation of the Doha Agreement. Al-Qaeda’s utilization of Afghanistan as a safe haven broke the terms of the peace deal, to the detriment of the Afghan people, who are often the victims of these domestic and foreign policies. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, stated that “By hosting and sheltering the leader of al-Qaeda in Kabul, the Taliban grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries.” UN intelligence recently published a report revealing that al-Qaeda not only saw Afghanistan as a safe haven but even enjoyed freedom under the rule of the Taliban, as al-Zawahiri was found to be freely communicating with others. Now that the emir was proven to be in Kabul, the Taliban’s commitment to upholding their end of the Doha Agreement is further called into question by American and international authorities. However, the Taliban also vehemently opposed the drone attacks, as Zabihullah Muhajid, the Taliban spokesman, stated that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan “strongly condemns this attack on any pretext and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.” This highly controversial missile strike has even been theorized by some, such as the highly influential Jordanian Arabic daily newspaper Ad-Dustour, to have been organized by al-Qaeda itself and that perhaps its own members were responsible for leaking information concerning the whereabouts of al-Zawahiri. Ad-Dustour even claimed that “the terrorist organization’s title is division and the intrigues within it contributed to the killing of its terrorist leaders.” Arguably, the breaches within the dead emir’s protection network allowed for the circumstances in which the jihadist leader could be executed. It is difficult to substantiate these claims as interpretations differ based on the geographical location of the source. While the West prefers to consider the U.S. as solely responsible for what they perceive to be an almost heroic act of perseverance and revenge against its enemies, Middle Eastern perspectives often question if American intelligence agents were really capable of attaining information about al-Zuwahiri’s whereabouts without help from within the jihadist group. Either way, the long-term consequences of this event are severe and will be far-reaching. Al-Zawahiri’s execution revealed the fragile structure of the group, as withdrawals from al-Qaeda followed immediately after his death. Hassan Abu Haniyeh and Muhammad Abu Rumman, two Jordanian scholars specializing in terrorism, explained that although such jihadist groups are often not majorly impacted by the assassination of their leaders due to their capability to rapidly rebuild ranks, al-Zawahiri’s death may have particularly strong repercussions. This is because other influential terrorist leaders, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Saeed al Shehri, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Nasser al-Wuhayshi and Osama bin Laden, had already been assassinated, leaving the jihadist group unable to withstand another emir assasination. Due to the general timing and overall context of this death, an already weakened al-Qaeda is now experiencing a leadership crisis, a rebellion of its branches, unprecedented levels of disengagement, a decline in geographical spread and a general discord. The leadership crisis arguably represents a worrisome turning point in this organization which was originally founded on harmony between bin Laden and al-Zawahiri’s visions. As the central leadership of this group is in a period of decline within Afghanistan, the regional branches are experiencing severe division. In the past years, al-Qaeda has expanded its ethnic and tribal alliances with jihadists such as Nusrat al-Islam. However, without al-Zawahiri, his jihadi fame and impressive theoretical capacity, these alliances could potentially collapse. Especially compared to ISIS, which has clear strategic and theoretical aims, al-Qaeda now faces a crisis of vision. As a result, the young Islamist extremists, looking for a straightforward intellectual, political and ideological system, would rather join ISIS than al-Qaeda. Hence, there is significant reason to assume that al-Qaeda will suffer short-term and experience waves of disintegration and fragmentation until the new emir either dooms or revives the group. However, others argue that al-Zawahiri’s assassination has been overplayed in the media and that this will impact his group minimally. An anonymous former member of al-Qaeda, who then joined the Islamic State, said, “I’m sure Biden will try to make it sound as if it’s something big, but actually it’s not significant for us at all. Ayman al-Zawahiri became the emir after bin Laden and is now a shaheed [martyr]. And that’s it for us. The significant question will be: Who will become the new leader now?” Indeed, some point out that the leader was almost invisible in recent years, and that the act of replacing him is not as momentous as many claim. Currently, no obvious successor who holds great respect and name recognition within the Islamist world exists. However, the core and affiliates of the jihadist group in countries in northern Africa and Yemen, who have waged war for decades, will most likely put forward a leader who has been battle-tested and who will perhaps possess even more charisma than al-Zawahiri. America’s tireless campaign against al-Qaeda through targeted assassinations has resulted in a lack of experienced leaders within the group. Some experts have claimed that a likely candidate for the role could be former Egyptian special forces lieutenant-colonel Saif al-Adel, one of the remaining members of al-Qaeda’s old guard. Arguably, his greatest rival in emir-hood could be a leader of The Guardians of Religion Organization — a Syrian hard-line Islamist group — Abu Abd al-Karim al-Masri. Either successor will surely benefit from the current decline of ISIS, which has become weaker and less inspiring since its loss of the caliphate. However, the competition between the two will still continue as long as the Islamic State retains its remaining land and popularity. Even in bin Laden’s days, al-Qaeda faced the problem of some of its branches swearing fealty to the emir just to pivot and pursue their own goals and ideology. Thus the new leader will need to ensure the unity of the organization. Perhaps he will be able to achieve this by attempting to organize a high-profile terrorist attack against the West to gain attention and boost his stature. However, the tough U.S. counter-terrorism network forces terrorist leaders to remain on the move to avoid discovery and execution constantly. Indeed, the relationship between the future emir and the Taliban movement will be key, as it could allow al-Qaeda to rebuild its base in Afghanistan and recruit more members. Due to the decreasing counter-terrorism efforts in Africa, al-Qaeda’s regional strands in Mali, Somalia and North Africa will likely solidify. As a result of the closure of political tracks in the Middle East, southern Sahara, North Africa, the Sahel and Southeast Asia, all of which are suffering from economic crises, al-Qaeda could exploitatively rebuild and solidify its roots in these areas amid these fiscal calamities. Although the Islamic State remains more radical and attractive to new jihadists, new leadership in al-Qaeda arguably allows it to adapt and take advantage of cooperation opportunities due to a common enemy. While al-Zawahiri’s death was a curse for al-Qaeda, perhaps it was also a blessing, as a new emir could rebuild al-Qaeda’s reputation and end the era of division. With the emergence of an international jihadi agreement about international opportunities, rising cross-border terrorism and multipolarity, new opportunities crop up for global jihadism. Whoever emerges, what is certain is that he will preside at a turning point in the overall jihadi movement. Will he irreparably fragment al-Qaeda, leading it to its dissolution, or will he unify and strengthen it, making the group more dangerous and threatening than ever before?

< Back 102 Deaths and 40 Missing : Lebanon’s economic crisis is pushing people towards absolute desperation By Ghazal Khalife October 29, 2022 Bodies drifting ashore, sirens blaring, and families frantically searching for survivors: this was the scene when a boat carrying 150 people capsized close to the Syrian shore. On Sept. 22, 2022, a boat carrying 150 emigrants — most of whom were Lebanese citizens, but also Palestinian and Syrian refugees — capsized near the coast of Tartous, Syria. More than one hundred bodies have been found, while 40 other victims are still lost. Syrian and Lebanese authorities have cooperated to locate these missing persons and inform their families of their fates. Lebanese officials, meanwhile, succeeded in capturing the smuggler and accomplices involved in the scheme. The scene is nothing short of a tragedy. Testimonies from the few individuals who survived and from victims’ relatives show just how calamitous the incident was. What pushed these people to embark on a journey where the death toll exceeds the survival rate? Mostafa Mesto, one of the fatalities, reportedly sold all his belongings to collect the 12 thousand dollars that the smuggler demanded. It was Mesto’s last chance to escape Lebanon with his family after his four failed attempts at legal immigration. Desperation is the common motive for victims of the illegal immigration industry and they are often inspired by success stories of families who reached Europe. A Palestinian survivor, Jihad Michlawi, explains how friends that migrated to Europe by sea promised that conditions in European migrant camps were more dignified than living in Lebanon, alleging that “even the food is way better.” This highlights the despair that the Lebanese population is feeling, faced with an ever-deteriorating economic crisis and a shamelessly negligent political class. It appears that this disaster will be repeated as more Lebanese citizens struggle to make ends meet and lose faith in a promising future. A Dire Economic Crisis with no Glimmer of Hope Most of the people on the boat came from Lebanon’s Northern region, Akkar and Tripoli, one persistently neglected by the government even before the financial crisis that plagued the country in 2019. According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2022, 708,000 out of the 1.1 million residing in Lebanon live under the poverty line, among them 266,000 Syrian refugees and 88,000 Palestinians. As a result, it comes as no surprise that the demand for the Lebanon-Cyprus illegal immigration industry is increasing. In one year, Lebanon’s migration rate increased by 426%; many are comparing the current immigration wave to that of the 1880s. The financial crisis blew up in 2019 after successive governments borrowed money with few restraints. Prior to this depression, the balance of payments deficit was usually remedied by foreign aid and remittances from the Lebanese diaspora. However, as the budget deficit skyrocketed and the government implemented few reforms, foreign donors refrained from handing out billions of dollars worth of pledged aid. The symptoms of a plummeting economy began to emerge in 2016, but the impending market slump was hastened by the 2019 protests. In short, a combination of poor financial planning, a turbulent political climate, and foreign investors’ loss of faith, further worsened by the pandemic and the Beirut explosion, paralyzed the Lebanese economy. As an import-dependent country, Lebanon’s sharp currency depreciation caused prices to increase drastically almost overnight. The price of bread rose 900%, and unsurprisingly wages could not keep up. In Tripoli’s densely populated Tabbene neighborhood, where most victims originated, the economic situation hit families hard — with disproportionately higher unemployment rates and close to no government intervention compared to the rest of the country. Furthermore, the consequences of the financial crisis have manifested themselves in greater emigration and crime rates. One of the more recent developments has been attacks on banks. Within a few months, there were two cases of desperate depositors attempting to access their money by holding bank employees hostage. The general public even sympathized with these depositors, hailing them as heroes who were “claiming their own rights.” Sally Hafiz, a woman who raided a bank demanding 13,000 dollars from her account to fund her sister’s cancer treatment, said in an interview, “ I had begged the branch manager before for my money, and I told him my sister was dying, didn't have much time left… time was running out and I had nothing to lose.” Hafiz’s case exemplifies the desperation uniting much of the Lebanese public.Fears of an even more dire future have inhibited popular protests. Lebanon is experiencing a vicious cycle of an increasingly dysfunctional political class and an apathetic population looking for ways to escape or reach short term solutions rather than demanding fundamental reforms. This reaction is shared by the masses — many are too occupied with securing their day to day needs rather than engaging in political activism which already proved ineffective in changing the existing political regime. As the perilous political and economic climate persists, Lebanese residents continue risking their lives in search of dignity andfundamental rights. They are looking for a solid government plan to resuscitate the dying economy and collapsing country. As long as no evidence of realistic, firmly implemented economic and politicalreforms appear on the horizonLebanese residents will continueembarking on suicide missions to seek out a stable livelihood. In an interview following the migrant boat’s capsize, 16-year-old Rawane El Maneh, arelative of one of the victims, said, “they went looking for a new life, and there they are in anew life, hopefully, one better than this one.”

< Back L’affaire Depardieu: un énième reflet du harcèlement sexuel dans les médias français By Calista Cellerier February 29, 2024 Photo/Siebbi Depuis quelques semaines, la France fait face à un énième scandale parmi les plus hauts placés, reflétant la dure réalité que les violences sexistes et sexuelles (VSS) ne font pas encore partie du passé. Le sexisme en France ne cesse d’augmenter. Selon les chiffres du Baromètre Sexisme 2023, 80% des femmes déclarent avoir été victime de sexisme et un tiers des Françaises ont vécu une situation de non-consentement. 23% des hommes considèrent qu’il faut de la violence pour se faire respecter. Aujourd’hui, on peut voir les conséquences de tels chiffres : une affaire de plus d’agression et de harcèlement sexuel qui indigne les foules, ou l’affaire Depardieu. En 2020, le célèbre acteur français Gérard Depardieu était mis en examen après que la comédienne Charlotte Arnould l’accuse de viol. 3 ans après, l’affaire n’est pas résolue. Depardieu était donc déjà connu des services de police pour un comportement grave envers ses collègues quand 13 femmes l’accusent à leur tour de VSS. Dans une enquête de Mediapart , trois femmes se confient sur leur expérience avec l’auteur mais affirment ne pas avoir porté plainte, de peur de ne pas être prisent au sérieux. Au fur et à mesure, de plus en plus de femmes dénoncent les mêmes comportements: des gestes, des commentaires et des actes à caractères sexuels, non consentis et souvent par surprise. Le même mode opératoire se discerne, ce sont des maquilleuses, actrices ou figurantes qui sont visées par l’acteur. Sophie Marceau, actrice star du film La Boum, déclaré dans les colonnes de Paris Match : “ Il ne s’en prenait pas aux grandes comédiennes, plutôt aux petites assistantes… La vulgarité et la provocation ont toujours été son fonds de commerce ”. De plus, lors d’un reportage de l'émission Complément d'enquête , il apparaît faisant des commentaires choquants et vulgaires sur des femmes et petites filles. Or, Gérard Depardieu dément formellement ces accusations. Pourtant, il ne s’agit pas de la première fois qu’un tel scandale éclate au sein des médias et du cinéma français. Gérard Depardieu est accusé de nombreuses fois de viol et d’agressions sexuelles au cours de sa carrière, notamment par la figurante Hélène Darras ou la journaliste espagnole Ruth Baza. Et il n’est pas le seul : il y a quelques années, la grande star de télévision Patrick Poivre d’Arvor (PPDA) est accusé par la journaliste Florence Porcel de viol, une affaire classée sans suite. Plus tard s’ajoutent avec son témoignage une vingtaine d’autre femmes, portant plainte pour viol, tentative de viol et agressions sexuelles. L'association MetooMédias se forme par la suite: c’est une lutte contre le pouvoir des stars françaises de la télévision. Et encore une fois, l’affaire est classée sans suite pour “insuffisance de preuves”. De nombreuses autres affaires peuvent être citées, comme Nicolas Hulot ou Roman Polanski, qui a reçu un oscar malgré ces accusations. Car oui, la plupart de ces affaires aboutissent à peu ou même aucune conséquences judiciaires. En effet, les accusations de Charlotte Arnould sont classées sans suite pour manque de preuves. Hélène Darras, qui accusa Depardieu en 2023 de viol et agressions sexuelles lorsqu’elle était figurante dans le film Disco en 2007, voit aussi son dossier classé pour prescription des faits. C’est le cas pour de nombreuses autres accusations contre l’acteur, qui actuellement reste en mise en examen pour viol dans le cadre de l’enquête de Mediapart . Il est libre d’aller et venir à sa guise, sans réelles conséquences pour l’instant. D’ailleurs, il est aperçu à Dubaï, à Lisbonne, en Belgique… selon de nombreux médias français, comme le Journal des Femmes . Il est en réalité assez courant que les hommes célèbres accusés de VSS s’en sortent sans grande difficulté. Usant de ripostes telles que la présomption d'innocence, la diffamation ou la conquête médiatique de l’opinion, ils se défendent en étalant “leur propre vérité et version des faits”. C’est la stratégie de base dans ces situations: aussi utilisée par Nicolas Hulot ou PPDA, qui eux non plus de semblent pas inquiétés par la justice mise à part des pertes de contrats et une image publique controversée. C’est d’autant plus le cas quand ces hommes bénéficient d’un capital social et financier considérable, obtenant le soutien d’autres célébrités. Ce soutien devient crucial pour ces célébrités, car il est leur dernier moyen de conserver leur position dans la société. Si l’on bénéficie du support des figures les plus hautes de la hiérarchie sociale, il devient alors facile d’ignorer de telles accusations et de continuer à vivre sans conséquences sociales, surtout s’il n’y a pas de répercussions judiciaires non plus. C’est ce qui s’est passé pour Depardieu des suites de C omplément d'enquête et de Mediapart . Dans une tribune publiée par Le Figaro le 25 décembre 2023, une cinquantaine de célébrités, dont des réalisateurs, acteurs et actrices, chanteurs et autres personnalités dénoncent un “lynchage” de l’acteur et un mépris de la présomption d’innocence. Et ce, bien après la publication des nombreuses vidéos affichant Depardieu faisant des commentaires vulgaires à caractère sexuels sur des femmes et petites filles dans C omplément d'enquête . Cependant, cette vague de soutien ne s'arrête pas là, car le président Emmanuel Macron déclare sur France 5 le mercredi 20 décembre que Depardieu est une “ fierté pour la France ” et affirme être un “ grand admirateur ” de l’acteur. Macron dénonce une “ chasse à l'homme” et remet en question l'authenticité des images présentées par Mediapart . En revanche, tout le monde ne continue pas de soutenir Depardieu. L’ancien président français François Hollande déclare dans sur France Inter: “ Nous, nous ne sommes pas fiers de Gérard Depardieu ”. Il critique ouvertement Emmanuel Macron: “ [Macron] a parlé de Gérard Depardieu, de son talent, et de la présomption d’innocence. Moi, je vais vous parler des quatorze femmes agressées, des femmes humiliées, des femmes bouleversées par les images qu’elles ont vues, de toutes ces femmes qui voient à travers Gérard Depardieu ce que peut être la violence, la domination, le mépris. ” Depardieu a été radié de l’Ordre National du Québec et a perdu son titre de citoyen d’honneur en Belgique. Sa statue a aussi été retirée du Musée Grévin à Paris. De nombreuses associations se sont saisies de l’affaire, comme MetooMédias . En effet, une lettre ouverte publiée peu après les faits dénonce les propos de Macron ainsi que l’absence de soutien aux victimes: “ Monsieur le président, vos paroles dénient à toutes les femmes victimes de violence le droit à être entendues et crues.” Cette association faisait déjà beaucoup de bruit lors du scandale de PPDA, et ne semble pas vouloir se démonter aujourd’hui non plus. Le cas de Gérard Depardieu n’est donc ni une affaire isolée, ni une affaire résolue. Que ce soit le gouvernement, la justice ou la communauté de célébrités en France, personne ne semble prendre au sérieux les accusations des victimes de l’acteur. Si nombre d’associations et figures publiques travaillent dur pour faire entendre la voix de ces femmes dans ce genre de situation, les efforts n’aboutissent pas souvent à de vraies poursuites judiciaires et de conséquences concrètes. Ainsi, ne laissons pas ces efforts tomber dans l’oubli, et continuons d’en parler, de se mobiliser et surtout de se soutenir, à travers des associations, des journaux, des actions.

< Back Famine et politique: l’Éthiopie dans la tourmente By Elian Jorand March 30, 2024 Dans les étendues arides d'Atsbi, à l'est du Tigré, où des teintes d'ocre remplacent ce qui autrefois étaient des parcelles de terre prospères, une bataille silencieuse se déroule entre la faim et le déni politique. Le Monde et des sources internationales rapportent une situation préoccupante, où les autorités régionales déclarent un état de famine, mais le premier ministre Abiy Ahmed refuse de reconnaître la gravité de la crise alimentaire, transformant une catastrophe humanitaire en champ de bataille politique. Comme le souligne la correspondant du Monde Noé Hochet-Bodin, Atsbi, autrefois symbole de prospérité agricole, témoigne désormais sombrement des séquelles d'une guerre civile brutale qui a sévi entre 2020 et 2022. Les rebelles Tigréens ont affronté les forces fédérales éthiopiennes, entraînant un bilan de décès estimé à 600 000. Le conflit a laissé derrière lui une région luttant non seulement avec les cicatrices de la guerre, mais aussi avec les dures réalités d'une grave crise alimentaire. Tesfaye Hailu, administrateur du village de Fellag Weyni, peint un tableau vivant de l'abandon et du désespoir. Les fermes vides et le bétail mort racontent une histoire d'une communauté forcée de fuir la brutalité du conflit, abandonnant ses moyens de subsistance. Les champs autrefois fertiles de Teff, la céréale principale de l'Éthiopie, sont désormais stériles, recouverts de poussière qui tourbillonne autour des sandales en plastique de Hailu. En dépit des déclarations alarmantes de famine par les autorités locales, le gouvernement d'Abiy Ahmed à Addis-Abeba nie la gravité de la crise, créant un contraste marqué entre la reconnaissance du désespoir sur le terrain et les manœuvres politiques au niveau national. Le leader éthiopien, autrefois salué comme un lauréat du prix Nobel et un symbole d'espoir, fait face à des accusations d'abandon de la population tigréenne pour consolider son pouvoir. Cette double narration d'une nation en crise n'est pas nouvelle dans l'histoire troublée de l'Éthiopie. Les échos des famines passées utilisées comme armes politiques résonnent dans la situation actuelle, laissant les habitants du Tigré pris au piège entre le déni et le désespoir. Alors que le monde est témoin de cette tragédie en cours, c'est un appel à l'action pour la communauté internationale, afin de confronter l'intersection entre la politique et la crise humanitaire. L'avenir de l'Éthiopie, autrefois prometteur, est maintenant en suspens, et la résilience de son peuple fait face à un test redoutable à la suite d'une bataille silencieuse qui pourrait bien déterminer le cours de la nation.

< Back Menton Hosts the 89th Edition of the Lemon Festival By Catarina Vita March 31, 2023 From Feb. 11 to 26, our once-deserted “lemon town” became packed with tourists from all over the world to attend Menton’s renowned Fête du Citron. Composed of parades (called corsos) from the train station to Place St. Roch, endless lemon-themed souvenirs and even 30-euro NFTs on sale , Menton’s Lemon Festival brought over 250,000 people to the small town . To Menton’s economy and tourism, this annualfestivity is crucial. The 89th edition of the Fête du Citron was themed rock and opera, with the mascot being John Lemon — a pun for John Lennon, the famous member of the Beatles and rock singer. The majestic lemon structures at Jardin Biovès all resemble rock and opera singers, and every Thursday during the festival, a parade stopped the city and displayed even more lemon-made structures and rock and opera music. According to Marinella Giardina, the tourism assistant to the mayor of Menton, in an interview with France Bleu , “a rock lemon is a lemon filled with vitamins and bananas and invites you to bite into life with certainty.” With this statement, Giardina means that the 89th Fête du Citron and its symbolic lemon will not be bitter but sweet and inviting to participate in. It is no exaggeration that the weekly corsos during the Lemon Festival paralyzed Menton. Mayor Yves Juhel, speaking to France3 Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’Azur , confirmed that over 100,000 people bought tickets to watch the festival. These presentations ended at 23:15, and since the trains back to other cities in the Côte D’Azur line end not long after 21:00, the Mayor encouraged bus networks to supplement train services. In 1896, the first edition of the Fête du Citron began. Hotel workers suggested a parade to draw visitors to Menton during the wintertime. This idea attracted not only high-profile visitors, such as Queen Victoria but the citizens of Menton as well. From 1896 to 1929, the parade continued, but without the famous citron as its main character. As 1929 approached, Menton led the production of lemons in the region, and hotel workers from Hotel Riviera organized a parade of citrus flowers and fruits throughout Menton. In 1934, the Fête du Citron became an annual tradition. It is undeniable that the festival is crucial for the Mentonese economy. According to BFM Côte D’Azur , a local Italian shop and restaurant, Pasta Piemonte, which sells ravioli with Menton lemon filling, reported selling eighty kilos of their delicacy. The shop owner also said that their orders are concentrated on corso days, especially because their location is close to Jardin Biovès, and hence close to the lemon-made statues. A local hotel was also reported to have a 100% occupancy rate during the Fête du Citron. Tutti Frutti, a Michelin-starred ice cream parlor, was closed in Menton since late October, and reopened due to the Lemon Festival, which has brought in massive queues. Frank Devergranne, interviewed by France3 Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’Azur as a member of the Menton’s hôteliers union, reported an approximate 50% growth in hotel performance. He also considered the economic concern for hotel workers in Menton during quarantine and winter time and how this year’s Fête du Citron was “a big gulp of oxygen” for their revenues. Small touristic train-like cars circulate Menton during the day times of the Lemon Festival, which gives temporary driving jobs to people in need. The promotion of dance, music and art for workers in the creative field is highlighted in the Lemon Festival, which makes the event a valuable opportunity for those working in the industry. Considering the passion the Mentonese government and the Côte D’Azur has for the annual Fête du Citron, the theme for its 90th edition is already established: the Olympics from ancient history to the present. The year 2024 will also be when Paris hosts the Olympic games, which will only further bolster French tourism. Nonetheless, the surface area of Menton is a humble 14.05 kilometers squared, and harboring more than 250,000 people is challenging, especially with its infinite staircases and narrow streets. For future events to come, the city is hopeful that the Mentonese government considers this factor and develops strategies to prevent the city from overcrowding. Obvious environmental factors come with the Fête du Citron, such as tourists polluting the streets and wasting food and material. As the Festival comes to an end, lemon peels and paper confetti are found scattered in the Basilica stairs and in the Mentonese narrow streets. To make this event even more prosperous for Menton itself and its citizens’ well-being, the government can deliberate strategies for the sustainability of the Lemon Festival.

Over 7 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression. The unity and warmth with which Europe has responded to the exodus of Ukrainian refugees is commendable. Yet it has highlighted the prejudice and bigotry that has plagued Europe’s willingness to welcome refugees from other parts of the world. < Back Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Exposes the Duality of European Hospitality By Hugo Lagergren October 31, 2022 Over 7 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression. The unity and warmth with which Europe has responded to the exodus of Ukrainian refugees is commendable. Yet it has highlighted the prejudice and bigotry that has plagued Europe’s willingness to welcome refugees from other parts of the world. Over the summer, I had the privilege of spending one month working with an NGO called Quick Response Team (QRT). I witnessed first-hand the brilliant work they do in supporting refugees in and around Thessaloniki, both psychologically and physically, both of which are part of their self-proclaimed mission. Naturally, I was nervous before arriving as I had never done something like this before. However, I realize now that there was no need for such feelings. The warmth and kindness that I was met with upon my arrival, not only from the QRT team, but also from the refugees, surprised me. Many of the people who manage to complete the treacherous journey to Greece from Syria, Iran or Afghanistan have suffered innumerable hardships just to get to Europe. Despite this, they always, without fail, took the time to find out how we, the volunteers, were doing. They asked us about our home countries, how we liked Greece and constantly thanked us for anything and everything. To say it was moving would be an understatement. Even now, three months after, I still struggle to find the words to describe the impact this summer had on me. Knowing that these people, who I developed such a strong connection with, are stuck in a prison, while I have gone back to my day-to-day life as a student, saddens me deeply. And knowing that the conditions in which they are living are worsening because of the war in Ukraine makes me very angry. It is for these reasons that I felt compelled to write about the desperate situation that many refugees find themselves in and to relay the message, that it is time to change how Europeans view refugees arriving from the Middle East and North Africa, as the crisis is anything but over. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Europe has shown its solidarity with the people of Ukraine through the swiftness of its response to the crisis, through direct aid to Ukrainian forces in the fight against Russia, as well as welcoming the seven and a half million refugees that have been forced to flee their country due to the war, a number that continues to grow as the war drags on. There is no doubt that the impressive speed and efficacy with which Europe has acted with regard to the Ukraine crisis is to be applauded. However, before attitudes become overly self-congratulatory, it is important to think back to Europe’s response to the 2015 refugee crisis and to observe how it continues to respond to the steady influx of refugees from the MENA region since then. Notwithstanding, it is important to mention that I am in no way trying to belittle the plight of the Ukrainian people. What they are undergoing, both as individuals and as a nation, through Putin’s aggression is utterly tragic. Yet, the stark contrast in treatment remains relevant, not only because it highlights a clear divide on a humanitarian level in the treatment of refugees based on culture, religion and skin color, but also because it reveals lurking sentiments within Europe that have contributed to the rise of far-right politics. Within weeks of the war’s commencement, the European Union fast-tracked the repurposing of funds originally intended as a COVID relief package, a decision which would usually take many months of debating. The money was redirected to Ukraine’s neighboring countries, including Moldova, which is currently not a member of the union, to support the mass reception of Ukrainian refugees. Even on a macro level, EU citizens have been filled with humanity and compassion, with many people offering up their houses to refugees. The scenes of kindness and generosity visible in train stations across the continent illustrated Europe’s willingness to integrate these refugees into their society. In Poland, refugees were met with banners that read “you are safe here” in Ukrainian. People rushed to carry their luggage and make sure that they found their way. Local governments on the Polish-Ukrainian border have spent millions of Euros providing refugees with food, water and prepaid phones among other things. A survey conducted at the start of the war revealed that 64% of Polish people were willing to personally assist Ukrainian refugees, with 90% supporting their acceptance into the country. Poland has now accepted over 1.4 million Ukrainian refugees. Germany has followed suit by accepting one million refugees, with Italy and Spain having accepted 170,000 and 145,000, respectively. In the United Kingdom, where immigration policy has become a major point of controversy in the last few years, the government has facilitated the acceptance of Ukrainian refugees through the creation of various sponsorship schemes. Nearly 100,000 Ukrainians have taken advantage of this. Another country whose political discourse has revolved around immigration in recent years is France, yet it has managed to take in over 100,000 Ukrainians with little controversy. Of the seven and half million refugees that have been forced to flee Ukraine in the last seven months, already over 50% have been registered as having “Temporary Protection” under the Temporary Protection Directive of the EU or similar national protection schemes (The Temporary Protection Directive has never been activated previously since its conception in 2001). This grants them the same rights as EU citizens or residency permit-holders for an initial period of one year, thus opening the possibility of housing, work and access to social welfare and medical assistance. Many have jumped at the opportunity to praise the warm reception provided to Ukrainians by the European community. Rightly so. When hearing praise for the swift and effective efforts to aid Ukraine I can’t help but to think back to the conditions experienced by refugees in Diavata camp in Thessaloniki. I remind myself that such hospitality was not often shown when Middle Eastern and North African refugees arrived on the shores of Europe in 2015. Since 2014, two and a half million refugees have arrived in Europe from the MENA region. Civil war and political persecution are some of the reasons that they have been forced to flee their homes. There was no rush to alleviate the suffering of these people. Instead, the response has been marred by discord, lethargy and a lack of willingness to aid those seeking safety and opportunity. Many countries tightened their borders, implemented harsher immigration regulations, and suspended the Schengen Accords, which allows for the free movement of people inside of the EU. Notably along the Serbia-Hungary border, where the Hungarian government infamously built a large barbed-wire fence along the entirety of the border, thus blocking a frequently used route by refugees coming from Turkey seeking passage to Germany. Police were also given the right to detain any who try and force their way through. As of today, Hungary has taken in 30,000 Ukrainian refugees. photo by Mattia Bidoli This apparent reluctance to welcome non-white refugees has resulted in many displaced individuals being stuck in the countries that they initially arrive in, notably Greece and Italy. The resultant burden on these countries has been crushing, as they have largely been forced to deal with the repercussions of this crisis on their own. In Italy, this has contributed to the emergence of the far-right, with the election of a coalition led by Georgia Meloni. Greece has also begun to crack-down on immigration. Recent reports suggest that Greek authorities are attempting to block an additional 40,000 refugees from entering the country. Moreover, new cumbersome regulations concerning NGOs and journalists have also been put in place which may hinder their presence in the country. NGOs working in Greece are now being forced to rely more heavily on private humanitarian donors. This can prevent local NGOs from effectively in the face of larger humanitarian emergencies wherein donors often opt to fund more urgent causes, like that of Ukraine. Upon arrival in receiving countries, Middle Eastern and North African refugees are not met with signs of greeting and acts of civilian kindness, but are instead confronted by armed police, who then round them up into designated camps which have been built for one purpose: to contain and remove the refugees from the general population. The camps, which have been built out of tall concrete blocks with some having barbed wire along the top, can often be found in rural or industrial areas, isolated from central and suburban parts of cities. photo by Hugo Lagergren The managers of these camps can also be authoritarian in the way they govern the camps. For instance, traditional celebrations are blocked from taking place and personal gardening projects are forcefully prohibited. As of today, some of the refugees have been living in camps for upwards of five years as they wait for approval to continue their journey, often towards Germany, a popular destination for refugees due to their better record in the 2015 crisis compared to other European countries. On the Franco-Italian border between Menton and Ventimiglia, where I am currently a student, the gendarmerie routinely searches trains coming from Italy, removing and detaining anyone they deem to be illegal, often as a result of racial profiling. France has in fact suspended the Schengen Accords for the first time since 2015 to control the influx of illegal immigration from Italy – a move which the bishop of Ventimiglia said will have “very negative consequences” by stoking racial tensions. This decision also causes refugees to risk their lives, as they are pushed to take more dangerous paths across the border, specifically, a pathway along the Alpes-Maritimes which has now been dubbed the “Pass of Death” due to the dangers presented by the terrain. A couple of weeks ago, I found myself debating with a friend whether racial tensions were more prominent in the US or in Europe. I was adamant that the two weren’t comparable, both in terms of its scope and its radicalism. Now, I’m not so sure. After researching this article, I realize that Europe has simply been successful in pushing the issue to the periphery of the continent, thus removing the issue from day-to-day life in its society. For you, Zahra, Mina, Donia, Kowsar, Zohre, Iram, Gowsar, I hope it changes and Europe becomes the place you dreamed of.

Le cas Carl Schmitt est troublant car lire ses livres et en discuter, c’est faire entrer un nazi enthousiaste dans le panthéon des grands auteurs. Carl Schmitt questionne nos croyances par ses écrits mais aussi par sa vie; sa vie montre la porosité de la philosophie et du droit avec le pire et l’inanité de séparer les Hommes en deux. Le génie et la monstruosité sont souvent une seule et même chose. < Back Carl Schmitt: le nazi avec de bonnes idées? Lubin Parisien February 28, 2025 « Sachons être suspect » clamait Julien Freund en 1971 dans sa préface de la réédition française de La notion de politique de Carl Schmitt. Suspect, Carl Schmitt l’est assurément pour son engagement public en faveur d’Hitler et pour la caution juridique qu’il apporte à l’antisémitisme d’Etat du IIIème Reich. Suspect, Carl Schmitt l’est aussi au vu de ses ardents défenseurs: Alain de Benoist, tête de pont du mouvement intellectuel ‘ethnopluraliste’ de la « Nouvelle droite, » fait la part belle à sa vision de la pensée schmittienne dans les travaux du GRECE (Groupement de recherches et d’études pour la civilisation européenne). Le GRECE fut d’ailleurs un des grands pourvoyeurs idéologiques de l’extrême-droite raciste française aujourd’hui incarnée principalement par le Rassemblement national (RN). Julien Freund, qui célébrait ceux qui savent être « suspects, » a participé à des colloques du GRECE et s’inscrit donc bien dans la mouvance intellectualisante de l’extrême-droite française. Etre nazi et être soutenu par des ethnonationalistes ou autres ‘ethnopluralistes’ est un mauvais départ; Carl Schmitt pourrait sembler voué aux égoûts de la pensée européenne. Néanmoins, son œuvre est toujours discutée et débattue, des personnalités plutôt marquées à gauche comme Agamben fondent leurs discours sur les outils intellectuels schmittiens. L’influence de la pensée de Carl Schmitt est un défi lancé à des sociétés européennes libérales et reconstruites apparemment en opposition aux crimes nazis. C’est un pied-de-nez au confort intellectuel que procureraient les figures rassurantes de grands hommes. Une brillante carrière dans le droit et dans le nazisme Carl Schmitt est né en 1888 à Plettenberg , dans le jeune Empire allemand. Il participe comme beaucoup de sa génération à la Grande Guerre, mais pas aux combats, il est affecté à un poste administratif dans l’arrière. Il est issu d’une famille catholique et sa formation universitaire est celle d’un juriste: il obtient son doctorat en 1915 à Strasbourg. Carl Schmitt montre son talent comme juriste et philosophe du droit et du politique. Les années 1920 sont un grand moment de production intellectuelle pour Carl Schmitt; citons pêle-mêle La dictature en 1921 sur la question de l'État d’exception, La notion de politique et Légalité et légitimité en 1932. Dans ce dernier ouvrage, analysant la Constitution de Weimar et ses faiblesses, il estime que l’interdiction du parti nazi est une nécéssité pour proteger un Etat démocratique comme celui de Weimar, le NSDAP étant, au sens fort et existentiel du terme, un ennemi de l’Etat. Les interprétations divergent sur ce point: certains décrivent un Carl Schmitt fossoyeur de Weimar, les autres le dépeignent comme un opportuniste qui n’était pas fondamentalement nazi, position qui a de quoi nous laisser perplexe. Il n’empêche que la suite de l’histoire est troublante: Carl Schmitt rejoint le parti nazi dès juin 1933. Olivier Beaud estime que les termes du débat sont faussés: Schmitt méprisait Weimar mais louait l’Etat allemand: « Ainsi, loin d’être une doctrine républicaine, la thèse de l’interdiction des partis politiques révèle une croyance bien peu républicaine en la toute-puissance d’un chef charismatique. » En outre, en voulant interdire des partis, Schmitt veut surtout interdire le KPD, le parti communiste allemand, suppression dont se chargera Hitler dès les premiers mois de son accession au pouvoir. Carl Schmitt, grâce à ses amitiés et ses réseaux nazis, réussit à devenir conseiller d’Etat de la Prusse. Le grand juriste du nazisme Hans Frank—qui fut à la tête du Gouvernement général en Pologne après l’invasion du pays—a restructuré les associations corporatives; ainsi, « le 1er novembre [1933], était officiellement installé le Groupe spécialisé des enseignants des établissements du supérieur ( Fachgruppe Hochschullehrer ) ainsi que son Fachgruppenleiter [son président], le professeur Carl Schmitt ». Le juriste allemand participe à plein régime à la justification du programme nazi. 1936 constitue une grande année pour Carl Schmitt: il participe à un colloque sur « la judéité dans les sciences du droit », un grand raout antisémite dans lequel Carl Schmitt propose de mettre tous les livres écrits par des juifs dans une catégorie d’oeuvres soi-disantes juives. Certains prétendent que Carl Schmitt cessa ses activités nazies en 1936: il n’en est rien, ses amitiés avec Hans Frank et Goering lui ont permis de maintenir sa position jusqu’à la fin de la guerre bien qu’il ne soit plus le grand juriste officiel. Carl Schmitt n’est que très peu inquiété par la dénazification, il continue sa vie d’intellectuel en publiant en 1950 Le Nomos de la Terre , un ouvrage sur le droit international qui a construit l’aura du juriste. Pendant ce temps, dans le Glossarium , Carl Schmitt n’a rien abandonné de son antisémitisme viscérale, il déclare que « les Juifs restent toujours des Juifs. Tandis que le Communiste peut s’améliorer et changer. Cela n’a rien à voir avec la race nordique, etc. Le Juif assimilé est précisément le vrai ennemi. » Carl Schmitt meurt en 1985, laissant derrière lui des héritiers encombrants, le premier desquels Alain de Benoist en France. Des trésors de mauvaise foi sont déployés par l’idéologue de la Nouvelle Droite: « ces petits esprits ne réalisent pas qu’en dénonçant le “nazi Carl Schmitt” ils emploient eux-mêmes des méthodes diffamatoires typiquement nazies. » L’influence de Schmitt dépasse néanmoins ce caniveau, Arendt discute de l'œuvre de Schmitt bien que ce soit pour la confronter, notamment sur la question de la Révolution française. Carl Schmitt a donc une étonnante postérité à gauche, il est cité par Agamben sur la question de l'État d’exception, par Etienne Baliba r et bien d’autres. Ce plot twist inattendu pour un nazi est dû à la capacité de son oeuvre à questionner les fondamentaux de notre conception de la politique et de l’ordre international. n ne peut pas comprendre l’enjeu de la figure de Carl Schmitt sans entrevoir brièvement la richesse de son oeuvre. L’ennemi au politique Pour Carl Schmitt, la politique est fondamentalement agonistique, c’est-à-dire qu’elle est fondée sur la lutte face à l’ennemi; la politique consiste en la distinction des amis et des ennemis. Dans La notion de politique , en 1932, le juriste explique son mépris pour le libéralisme en démontrant que celui-ci essaie de se soustraire à la dialectique agonistique en masquant la lutte par l’idée de concurrence, en ne proposant pas de politique « sui generis . » La formule courante consiste à dire que « l’ennemi est la figure de notre propre question. » L’ennemi est l’altérité radicale, une altérité construite par le jeu des intérêts notamment territoriaux. Carl Schmitt n’appelle pas à anéantir l’ennemi car sa présence est une nécessité quasi-existentielle pour Schmitt—c’est lui qui nous donne du relief et nous défie. Sur la politique internationale, avec La théorie du partisan en 1963 et quelques écrits antérieurs, Carl Schmitt dénonce ‘l’ordre de Genève’ et de Versailles. En effet, la condamnation morale de l’Allemagne et de l’ennemi géopolitique, en général, permet à chacun des camps de se targuer de représenter l’Humanité face à l’inhumanité; face à l’immoral et à l’inhumain, la totalisation de la guerre et la volonté d’exterminer est la suite logique. De plus, Carl Schmitt critique le biais induit par les définitions classiques de guerre et de paix, l’une étant toujours définie par l’absence de l’autre. Avec la moralisation indue du concept de politique et l’exclusion théorique de la possibilité d'alternatives à cette binarité, Carl Schmitt pointe du doigt des contradictions en faveur toujours du vainqueur, comme l’occupation de la Ruhr en 1923 décrite comme nécessaire à la paix, alors que c’est l’acte hostile par excellence. On pourrait également penser, anachroniquement, que les guerres contre le terrorisme ou celle du Golfe relèvent du même type de contradictions. La moralisation du politique et son hypocrisie n’apparaissent pas ainsi comme un progrès. C’est au contraire un danger pour la paix effective et pas seulement théorique. La pensée de Schmitt est un pied-de-nez à notre acception classique du politique, vu comme l’espace de régulation des conflits et du compromis. Carl Schmitt est certes radioactif par ses engagements nazis, mais il l’est plus encore par sa pensée critique qui pose des questions pertinentes; c’est la dissonance avec son parcours nazi qui met à l’aise. En outre, les convictions idéologiques de Carl Schmitt se retrouvent dans sa pensée. Ainsi, si sa critique du libéralisme porte également dans des milieux de gauche—et a sans doute de l’intérêt—il ne faut pas occulter que dans certains textes et articles, il dénonce le libéralisme comme tête de pont d’un « formalisme » juif. Son admiration pour Hitler, opportune ou non, n’est pas sans rappeler la fascination de Carl Schmitt pour la figure du chef comme celle du président du Reich sous Weimar. Cela s’inscrit dans ce qu’on a appelé le décisionnisme . Selon Jean-Louis Schlegel, cela consiste à affirmer que « c'est la décision individuelle qui redonne sens au droit, ou qui le réinvente, dans des situations sans issue. » Dans une situation d’exception et face à la constante inimitié, l’acte même de trancher—de distinguer l’ami de l’ennemi notamment—est l’acte premier du politique, plus que le fond de la décision. A la lumière de son engagement nazi, on ne saurait ne pas tirer le fil liant les deux facettes de Carl Schmitt. Le nazi crasseux et le juriste brillant sont manifestement une seule et même personne, le dédoublement est une réponse trop facile au problème que pose Carl Schmitt au débat intellectuel. Des vraies œuvres ou des documents du nazisme? La production de Carl Schmitt est donc porteuse de critiques pertinentes, mais aussi d’un dangereux poison antisémite. L’opportunité de lire et d’éditer Carl Schmitt est très débattue. Le professeur de philosophie Charles Yves Zarka, dans un article du Monde en 2002 réagissant à la réédition d’un livre de Schmitt et à sa préface, propose de distinguer une oeuvre à part entière et un document à prendre comme le témoignage de certaines idées: « On doit éditer Schmitt, mais comme on édite les textes d'autres nazis, c'est-à-dire comme des documents, non comme des œuvres, et encore moins des œuvres philosophiques qu'on discute comme telles. » Le philosophe rappelle bien tous les mensonges qui ont été diffusés pour dédouaner Schmitt de ses responsabilités—notamment sur sa soi-disant disgrâce en 1936. Charles Yves Zarka prévient aussi que l’ensemble de la production intellectuel schmittien et ses engagements concrets durant tout le régime nazi sont les deux faces de la même pièce. La question du rapport de Carl Schmitt au nazisme fait néanmoins encore débat. Alain de Benoist remplit son rôle d’intellectuel raciste, certains comme Etienne Balibar dépeignent ‘l’expérience’ nazie de Schmitt comme une mésaventure regrettable dans la vie d’un brillant juriste. Une approche plus fine existe; l’historien du nazisme Johann Chapoutot décrit un Carl Schmitt qui voulait sincèrement être le grand juriste du IIIème Reich mais qui a échoué. Dans un colloque à l’Académie royale de Belgique en 2019, il démontre bien la participation enthousiaste de Schmitt à la dictature nazie, tout en nuançant le portrait qui est parfois fait de Schmitt comme le juriste nazi par excellence. Antisémite catholique virulent, Carl Schmitt n’est pas à la pointe de la ‘pensée’ nazie. Pour Chapoutot, Carl Schmitt ne fut pas la grand juriste nazi car il n’est pas allé jusqu’à une biologisation du politique, d’autres l’ont fait: Schmitt a été doublé à sa droite. En parlant de Grossraum (un territoire plus grand), Carl Schmitt n’est pas dans une ‘avant-garde’ qui parle de Lebensraum , qui contient une idée d’un supposé biotope pour la race aryenne. Schmitt reste fondamentalement classique, ce qui explique pourquoi il est lisible aujourd’hui par d’autres que des nazis. Le grand lecteur de Carl Schmitt en France aujourd’hui est Jean-François Kervégan, dont les travaux ont irrigué cet article. En 2011, il a publié un livre précisément sur la question de l’utilisation de Carl Schmitt, Que faire de Carl Schmitt . Sa formule pour résumer sa thèse est la suivante: il faut « partir de Carl Schmitt . » D’une part, il reconnaît la grande pertinence des outils théoriques schmittiens pour comprendre et le monde et ses évolutions. Il faut puiser dans sa pensée des outils, mais pas son idéologie. D’autre part, cette formule résume bien aussi la nécessité de s’éloigner de Schmitt et de lire ses œuvres en sourcillant. Il ne faut pas prendre pour argent comptant tout ce qu’il dit car il s’en sert à certains moments pour justifier le nazisme. C’est donc une position d’équilibrisme que Jean-François Kervégan assume pour pouvoir puiser intelligemment et avec prudence dans le trésor schmittien. Le cas Carl Schmitt est troublant car lire ses livres et en discuter, c’est faire entrer un nazi enthousiaste dans le panthéon des grands auteurs. Carl Schmitt questionne nos croyances par ses écrits mais aussi par sa vie; sa vie montre la porosité de la philosophie et du droit avec le pire et l’inanité de séparer les Hommes en deux. Le génie et la monstruosité sont souvent une seule et même chose. Photo credits: Ludwig Hohlwein on Wikimedia Commons

“In each newspaper, you encounter accounts of incredible queerness. For our writers these occurrences are fantastical, and Their Lords do not even want to take them into consideration, whilst they are the reality in itself, because they consist of random events. Who would want to observe, to elucidate and to register them? Events as such are consumed continuously, day by day, and are not exceptions. All of the reality passes us incessantly.” < Back News: Informative or Desensitizing? Amer El Ibrahim February 28, 2025 News. They are everywhere. Opening up our phones, news inundates us immediately. Watching the TV has become a sine qua non means to propagate news intensely, perpetually, with no rest or response. Relatives and loved ones get together in this ridiculous and quite tragic game, filling the void of the silences one always encounters in day-to-day inter-human relationships with some novelty that has happened somewhere: “Have you heard that…?” One really ought to wonder whether these reported occurrences should actually be disseminated or not and whether their spread affects our means to reason and feel in a positive or negative manner. News, as in the reported occurrences distributed by newspapers, social media, TV and so forth, could be well regarded as a means to a greater end. After all, one can know through trusted sources about the atrocities of the Israelis in Gaza, the genocides in Myanmar, the fall of the Boeing plane in South Korea, the casualties and evolution of the war in Ukraine, and the list goes on endlessly. On a more microcosmic level, one is deemed to find out about the local murderer/rapist/pedophile of the country or region one lives in, along with a thorough exploration of their psyche by verified “experts”. Indeed, this showcase of evil, decay, misery, death and injustice, may alight in some the desire to fight against this aesthetic of ugliness type of spectacle (graced by Baudelaire). And on a grander level, it is exactly this news that indirectly creates associations and NGOs that fight the darkness of this world—a rare case of nobility being born out of despair and suffering. However, to my naked eye, this category of noble warriors is or seems an outright minority. For the rest of us mortals, negative news provides a blessed opportunity for morbid entertainment. One feels a type of fear and trembling when one hears about a terrible train accident near one’s city, but, simultaneously, one also feels a certain delight that they were not on that train, that they survived and the others did not. Moreover, the majority of news conveys tragic events, not because of higher ideals but because that is what the public demands . The negativity bias is not an appendage of the pessimist, but a real phenomenon that affects all of us. We are, indeed, much more moved by death rather than the blooming of a flower. Adding to this propensity for negativity which is very much indulged by the rule of supply and demand, the pervasiveness of news in our lives not only entertains us but desensitizes us to the spectacle that life offers us daily. How could one be moved intrinsically by the bleak and silent suffering of the poor pensioner, the next-corner beggar, the lone mother or the common orphan in times when we hear constantly about the piles of corpses gathered in Palestine and Ukraine, the deaths of thousands in floods and earthquakes and the genocides that sporadically occur in Africa or Asia? This is the perfect recipe for bleakness through over-shadowing events. So much death and suffering, yet one remains completely detached from this debacle. Then the following question must be asked: How does one benefit from being a third-party witness to such atrocities? The grandiosity of all these major events that usually happen somewhere far away adds another dimension: magical realism. Through their distance from us, they become almost fabulous events that seem to be spurned out of the fantasy of an imaginative child rather than from the outside reality. Such events are the reality in all of its randomness, cruelty and fugitive play, not a dream-like theater of forces outside of our grasp. This prevalence of negative news has developed and enhanced a spiritual organ or mechanism with which we have already been endowed. This organ acts to rebut such events from our consciousness, which, by the rule of chance and luck, could have regarded us in their course, but which have not. Thus, to achieve this, this organ places such events in the land of the fabulous and magical, even though they might seem to the helpless reason as real as they can get. The heart, as Pascal would say, has a completely different reasoning. This organ also allows a steady march through life, as it diminishes the effect the surrounding human suffering has on us. It is as if one is gently tased, but no more than what someone with an auditive prosthesis could hear. This probl é matique posed by news has been identified since its beginnings almost 200 years ago, by writers such as Dostoyevski or Flaubert. A quote by the former is edifying in this sense: “In each newspaper, you encounter accounts of incredible queerness. For our writers these occurrences are fantastical, and Their Lords do not even want to take them into consideration, whilst they are the reality in itself, because they consist of random events. Who would want to observe, to elucidate and to register them? Events as such are consumed continuously, day by day, and are not exceptions. All of the reality passes us incessantly.” On an ending note, there is no clear path to take regarding news. Out of the pendulum of either/or presented above, a middle way seems to prevail: moderation in the consumption of news. Elimination is impossible, while overindulging is mental and sentimental castration. And one more thing: let us see reality through our own eyes and in itself (as much as one can, thanks Kant!), not through the lens of statistics, assertions or real but miraculous occurrences. Photo credits: Miguel Ángel Arreguin Padilla, 2022

Je ne vous apprendrai donc rien en vous disant que notre université, et le campus de Menton en particulier, souffre d’une image pour le moins ternie par des accusations d’antisemitisme et autres propos diffamatoires circulant dans les médias. Mais les questions qui demeurent sont : pourquoi en sommes nous arrivés là, et comment est-ce que cela nous impacte concrètement ? < Back La perception médiatique de Sciences Po Menton By Anonymous April 30, 2024 Si vous lisez ceci, vous êtes probablement élèves de Sciences Po. Je ne vous apprendrai donc rien en vous disant que notre université, et le campus de Menton en particulier, souffre d’une image pour le moins ternie par des accusations d’antisemitisme et autres propos diffamatoires circulant dans les médias. Mais les questions qui demeurent sont : pourquoi en sommes nous arrivés là, et comment est-ce que cela nous impacte concrètement ? Depuis le 7 octobre, Sciences Po a été au centre de l’attention pour les positions prises par ses élèves en relation au conflit en cours. Mais le campus de Menton en a souffert doublement. En tant que campus ‘Méditerranée Moyen Orient’ il est le plus directement affecté car ce conflit touche à notre zone géographique de prédilection, mais aussi car il touche certains de nos camarades de près. Pourtant, la discussion a été difficile et la gestion compliquée. En effet, notre campus a souffert d'attaques par des élus locaux d’extrême droite visant directement certains étudiants en postant des vidéos de leurs visages dans un but de diffamation du campus. Ils les ont ainsi mis au centre d’une attention qui n'était pas voulue et haineuse. De plus, les médias ont abondamment répété que notre campus était “antisemite”, associant tout une communauté étudiante aux actes certes répréhensibles mais non représentatifs d’une petite minorité, et vidant de son sens cette notion si grave et complexe. Il est donc impossible de ne pas être choqué de la durée durant laquelle ces propos ont pu circuler en ligne, endommageant gravement l’image de notre campus. On pourrait peut être penser que la réputation du campus, et de Sciences Po plus largement, s’en remettra probablement; après tout, les classements QS ne semblent pas en tenir compte, Sciences Po arrive 2 ème en politique, et c’est peut être tout ce qui compte… Néanmoins, cette attention médiatique est grave, car elle attise les divisions et fragilise notre confiance dans la capacité de notre institution à nous protéger. Souffrant d’une gouvernance instable, nous nous sommes donc retrouvés démunis. Qui plus est, les propos ont été plus d’une fois démentis par des élèves de manière très ouverte, mais étrangement cela ne semble pas autant attirer les médias. En ce qui concerne les impacts directs de ces accusations, notre campus en souffre déjà. En effet, le président de MEDMUN, l’une des cinq associations permanentes du campus, a évoqué la difficulté à inviter certains diplomates ou à nouer des partenariats avec certaines marques qui ne voudraient pas que cette image leur soit associée. Pour lui, il est d’autant plus difficile de se défendre contre de telles positions tant que Sciences Po ne fait pas de “contre attaque”, car sans un démenti officiel nous n'avons que peu d’arguments. Néanmoins, il est important de reconnaître l'existence dans notre campus de postures antisémites. Comme la conférence du 24 avril nous l’a rappelé, les élèves juifs de notre campus en ont souffert. Les témoignages l’ont montré, nous ne sommes pas toujours très à l’aise. Il est aussi important de se rendre compte que l’antisemitisme est souvent mal compris. En effet, ce que certains voient comme anodin ne l’est pas toujours pour ceux à qui ça s'adresse systématiquement. Et oui les ‘blagues’ stéréotypes toujours justifiées a ce titre sont dures à vivre, et oui être convoqué sur la conversation a propos du conflit en Israël/Palestine sans toujours être à l'aise pour donner notre perspective est un problème. Je dois l’admettre, durant le mois d’octobre et même depuis, certains jours ce malaise m’a envahie. Mais je refuse de laisser ces angoisses définir notre campus et mon expérience. Ce n’est pas en stigmatisant tout le campus que ce sera résolu. En effet, la reprise de la vraie souffrance de certains élèves à des fins politiques rend le dialogue d’autant plus difficile. La diffamation venant des médias pousse à des réactions antagonistes de certains qui empêchent la discussion modérée et honnête. Il est donc évident que la diffamation à l’encontre de notre campus affecte tout à la fois des individus, le fonctionnement d’associations et la capacité d’organiser des événements en son sein. Le manque de réponse face à ces attaques médiatiques et leurs reprises politiques nous laisse nous questionner sur l’avenir du campus.

“La seule manière de sortir de la violence consisterait à prendre conscience des mécanismes de répulsion, d'exclusion, de haine ou encore de mépris afin de les réduire à néant grâce à une éducation de l'enfant relayée par tous.” < Back Les enfants dans la guerre: un enjeu pour la paix By Salomé Greffier for UNICEF November 30, 2023 Le 7 octobre 2023 au matin, des milliers de roquettes déchirent le ciel entre la bande de Gaza, en Palestine, et le territoire israélien. Un mois après l’opération “Déluge d’Al Aqsa” perpétrée par le groupe terroriste du Hamas, l’escalade des hostilités a provoqué la mort de plus de dix mille personnes, majoritairement des civils. Cette nouvelle déclaration de guerre entre Israël et Palestine s’ajoute à la liste trop longue des conflits de notre siècle. Des guerres habitées par des divisions ethniques et religieuses, opposant des Etats souvent déliquescents à des groupes armés terroristes ou non, sur un fond d’inégalités profondes imposées par la mondialisation. Ainsi, Bertrand Badie et Dominiques Vidal dans “Nouvelles guerres, Comprendre les conflits du XXI° siècle” (2016) soulignent les changements de nature des conflits actuels. Asymétriques, transnationales et commercialisées, les violences se dirigent principalement vers les civils, en dépit du droit international humanitaire. En effet, la quatrième convention de Genève de 1949 énonce des principes tels que la distinction entre civils et combattants, la proportionnalité et la précaution dans l’attaque ainsi que l’interdiction des maux superflus et la protection des bâtiments civils. Alors que ce texte de loi dénombre 196 parties, soit 196 pays l’ayant reconnu et/ou ratifié, la guerre (que l’on pourrait adjoindre d’un pluriel) israélo/palestinienne témoigne de sa violation; les civils demeurant toujours les premières victimes du conflit. A l’occasion de la journée internationale des droits de l’enfant le 20 novembre, l’exposition des mineurs à la brutalité de la guerre retiendra notre attention. Pour Antonio Guterres, secrétaire général de l’ONU, Gaza “devient un cimetière pour enfants” et réitère ses appels à un cessez-le-feu immédiat. Dès les premières heures du conflit, l’organisation internationale et son agence, l’UNICEF, ont appuyé la nécessité de l’arrêt total des attaques armées, de l'acheminement de l’aide et de la libération des enfants enlevés. Malgré ces cris d’alerte, au 5 novembre, le bilan faisait état d’au moins 4 008 enfants décédés dans la bande de Gaza, 7 695 blessés et 1 150 portés disparus. Cela représente 400 enfants tués ou blessés par jour sous seulement 25 jours de conflit. Du côté israélien, les otages toujours retenus par les forces du Hamas comptent de nombreux enfants. Au delà de ce conflit, entre 2005 et 2020, les Nations Unies ont vérifié plus de 266 000 violations graves contre des enfants commises par des parties lors de conflits en Afrique, Asie, au Moyen-Orient, en Amérique latine et récemment en Europe avec la guerre russo-ukrainienne. Tués, mutilés, enlevés, violés, exploités sexuellement, les enfants sont touchés dans leur chair. Nous pensons dès lors aux enfants-soldats du Libéria, de Sierra Leone ou encore du Népal. La prostitution infantile touche tous les continents et particulièrement au Pakistan, Inde, Kenya ou encore le Brésil. De plus, il est nécessaire de considérer les impacts psychologiques relatifs aux violences commises envers les enfants, qui les suivent dans leur vie, comme un rappel constant des actes qu’ils ont subi. De même, l’accès à l’éducation, à l’eau, à la santé, sont des défis à relever pour les organisations internationales et associations. Enfin, les déplacements migratoires d’enfants restent une problématique pour l’UNICEF. Le Soudan demeure ainsi la plus grande crise de déplacements d’enfants au monde, avec 3 millions de mineurs fuyant la violence généralisée. Au total, ce sont plus de 43,3 millions d’enfants qui se trouvent forcés de quitter leurs domiciles. La majorité sont déplacés à l’intérieur de leurs pays d’origine. Le rapport de l’UNICEF “25 years of children and armed conflict: Taking action to protect children in war” (2022), traduit, selon Catherine Russell, directrice générale de l’organisation, de “l’incapacité du monde à protéger ses enfants contre les violations graves commises en période de conflit armé ”. Un aveu de faiblesse, rappelant à chaque partie leur responsabilité dans les conflits. Cette culpabilisation engage non seulement les Etats, mais aussi les organisations non gouvernementales et groupes armés à se soucier davantage des risques qu’ils pourraient encourir à l’avenir en sacrifiant des générations. Porter atteinte à l’intégrité des enfants met en péril la paix, la stabilité et la sécurité future globale. Construire la paix à partir d’un cercle de violences intégrées dans les représentations individuelles semble être vain. Néanmoins, si l’on en croit les mots de Françoise Héritier, l’éducation et la considération de l’autre en tant qu’être digne de respect et de considération, propose une issue à ces trappes de brutalités: “ La seule manière de sortir de la violence consisterait à prendre conscience des mécanismes de répulsion, d'exclusion, de haine ou encore de mépris afin de les réduire à néant grâce à une éducation de l'enfant relayée par tous. ”

< Back European Asylum Overhaul Nears Finish Line By Yasmin Abbasoy December 31, 2023 Touted as a “historic” resolution to years of contention among Member States, the European Commission’s New Pact on Asylum and Migration has been the subject of controversy regarding the changes proposed to the procedure followed at European borders. The planned changes have been widely criticized, and non-governmental organizations have warned they could lead to a crumbling of human rights and the solidification of dangerous and often excessive practices at the borders Negotiations on the pact, proposed by European Commission President, Ursula Von Der Leyen, almost three years ago, are reported to be in their final stages. On the heels of a characteristically prolonged period of conciliation between European institutions, officials have made their intentions of finalizing the content of the pact before the new year. It has become a priority to push the pact through before the upcoming European elections in the summer of 2024. The pact is composed of five principal pieces of legislation which collectively aim to define and present a coherent legal framework outlining the measures to be taken in ordinary and extraordinary situations at the external borders of the Union. By formalizing procedures to be followed in the event of unusual pressure at the borders, the pact is envisioned to put an end to the autonomous and uninhibited responses of states to the increasingly common phenomena of border crises. It will also provide some relief to so-called frontline countries, whose national borders form the external borders of the Union and who must evidently bear the brunt of new arrivals. These nations have thus been the most vocal in their support of migration reform to reduce the perceived inequalities with regards specifically to the distribution of migrants across the 27 member states. The “Screening Regulation” envisions a 5-day screening procedure to be imposed on all people on the move who enter the territory of the Union irregularly. During the course of this procedure, national authorities will collect biometric information and perform security and vulnerability checks. This preliminary inspection of the migrant’s profile will, in theory, allow for more accurate decision making as the asylum process continues. The data collected will be stored in the European Dactyloscopy database, which is used to keep track of and verify the identity of those who submit asylum requests. The prospects of this regulation in light of the constantly shifting migratory fluxes remain grim. However, the amount of time allowed for the procedure (extended to 10 days in the event of a “massive influx”) is more likely to lead to an increase in time spent in detention centers, waiting for a screening, rather than a well-functioning procedure. Furthermore, the fast-tracked procedure casts doubt on the ability of officials to correctly determine vulnerabilities or security risks and provide the necessary support. Alarmingly, all screening procedures will take place under what is called the “legal fiction of non-entry,” which establishes a difference between the physical border and the legal one. While they may have crossed the physical border, migrants are not considered to have entered the territory of the Member State until their presence is established and validated by a border official, which is the end-result of the screening procedure. As a result, they have crossed the ‘legal border’ and can now be considered as within the territory of the European Union. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles comments that in practice, this creates a transitory space of diminished protections, where Member States can potentially derogate from ensuring the rights that they would otherwise be compelled to if the migrant were to be inside their territory legally. This space is essential for the increased efficiency of border procedures, as it is the part of the justification used to impose limitations on movement, such as in detention centers, and increased observation on migrants. After undergoing the screening procedure, migrants seeking asylum will be directed to one of two channels: normal asylum procedures, or the newly-introduced accelerated procedures, also termed border procedures. The border procedure applies to those applicants who are perceived to present more of a risk – those who have provided incorrect personal information, or that come from countries from which more than 20 percent of asylum applications were rejected. These asylum seekers may be detained for a period of up to 12 weeks, after which authorities will be granted a further 12 weeks to deport applicants in case of a rejection. In the common case where returning the migrant is not possible in this timeframe, the return regulation allows for up to 6 months of detention pending an impending deportation. The allowance for this extended period of detention would see migrants spend months in detention facilities and closed camps, which have until now proved to be ill-equipped to manage even their current load: inadequate access to shelter, food, and water are constantly reported at camps including in the frontline country of Greece. The border procedure also takes place within the context of the aforementioned legal fiction: access to free legal aid, usually taking the form of further explanation of the asylum procedure and work on the potential and viability of appeal procedures, is not guaranteed by the pact, and the filing of an appeal does not inhibit the return procedure. This means that a person could be deported outside of the country while the appeal to a rejection is actively being processed. The border procedure, then, creates a hierarchy among asylum-seekers, based on not only their actual and potential behavior but immutable characteristics such as ethnicity. It risks generalizing the nationals of a particular nation to such an extent that the asylum procedure, meant to provide protection to the vulnerable, loses meaning and effectiveness. The legislation introduced for the benefit of frontline countries is one of forced solidarity: when a frontline country declares itself to be in a state of migratory crisis, other member states must either relocate some migrants to their own territories or provide monetary support to the country undergoing the crisis. Tellingly, the European Commission has continuously stressed that payments made to the “solidarity pool” (which amount to 20, 000 euros per individual migrant) will exclude member states from having to relocate migrants to their own territory. There is no proposed guidance for the apportionment of the money, and thus no guarantee that it would be spent on bettering the experience of asylum seekers rather than strengthening border control mechanisms which would only serve to keep more people out. The single most contentious segment of the pact is the proposed Crisis Regulation. This regulation, which comes into effect only during a “migratory crisis” or a major unforeseen event, allows member states to derogate from standard asylum procedures. The length of border procedures, and thus the length of potential detention, could be extended by a period of 8 weeks, and parameters for directing asylum seekers to the border procedure could be loosened. The terms which form the cornerstone of this part of the regulation, crisis and force majeure, are not clearly defined. This leads to a situation where member states are incentivised to adopt a loose definition of crisis in order to more effectively create optimal conditions for their own goals, thus normalizing derogation from European Union law as a valid response to events that may or may not be considered “emergencies.” Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International have strongly criticized the pact, with Director of the European Union office, Eva Geddie, commenting that “This agreement risks leaving people stranded, detained or destitute along Europe’s borders and will do nothing to improve the protection of asylum seekers in the EU.” in response to an agreement on the crisis regulation reached in October, while Human Rights Watch has stated that the pact will do nothing but increase suffering at the borders. In the European parliament, the Left party has consistently advocated centering the rights of asylum seekers, with member of parliament, Cornelia Ernst, referring to the pact as “making a bad situation orders of magnitude worse.” The European Commission's New Pact on Asylum and Migration, aimed at resolving long standing disputes, faces significant criticism for its proposed border procedure changes. Concerns about potential human rights erosion, disproportionate practices, and procedural complexities persist. As negotiations near completion, the pact's impact on the rights and well-being of asylum seekers remains a contentious issue, drawing attention from both NGOs and within the European Parliament. The coming months will reveal whether these concerns are addressed in any meaningful way or if the pact proceeds despite the raised objections.

Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipients, are the leaders we need to celebrate to understand the fundamental place of free speech in any and all human societies. < Back Ressa and Muratov: The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates of Whom the World is in Dire Need. By Georgia McKerracher October 30, 2021 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.

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. < Back Love is in the Air? Une Lutte Contre le Vent Maia Zasler and Maria Eirini Liodi March 31, 2025 February 14th. A day marked in red on calendars around the globe. For better or worse, we prepare roses for our partner, bottles of wine for our “Galentine’s” soirées or gather stocks of chocolate for company in bed. Amidst the swirling romance and ka-ching! of capitalist cash flows, somewhere in the Côte d’Azur, some 400 students ponder their life decisions. Menton, nestled in the nook of Southern France, is but a blip in the grand scheme of life and love—a microcosm resembling normality. Well, dear readers, Valentine’s Day has passed. Although remnants of love (and receipts from Société Générale ) linger over a month later, there persists a pressing matter. In such a tight-knit academic environment, we may appreciate the privilege of exchanging ideas on constitutional law and climate policy with familiar faces, but navigating the same dating pool gets tedious to say the least . This got us thinking: In a limited (dried-up?) dating pool, is there hope for romantic dalliances in Menton? With an unbalanced male-to-female ratio, could those yearning for a man even find (catch, and then hold on to) one? Then we thought some more, and we configured a little word problem: 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. And as it has been pointed out, this unequal dating capital has fostered an environment in which “straight men are aware that they have too many options and choose to either ‘play around sexually’ or emotionally manipulate” ( Articulate Survey Respondent #1 ). Is “hookup” culture, then, even a viable option? In such a small community, any sort of relation (wink, wink) is bound to get around. Gossip—a natural form of extending platonic intimacy—is inevitable. Thus, as eloquent as we Sciences Po students are, stories spread. Unless you don’t care about your personal business being aired, entering into any kind of relationship brands you with a respectable scarlet letter of sorts. With all of these obstacles in mind, we had to ask: Did the Sciences Pistes spend Valentine’s Day alone? From “Dry January Extended to Dry February” and “Eating Chocolate Alone in Bed” to “Galentine’s Drinks” and beyond, Sciences Po students were getting busy. Some of the ladies channeled Miley Cyrus and bought their own flowers, while others replaced love with a few rounds of poker. About 30% of respondents were even lucky enough to go on a date (although a couple were restricted to the virtual realm). Even if ‘alone,’ it seems that the mentonnais had no trouble occupying their time. Our very professional—very halal—survey shone light on more than just February 14th-related activities. Be it perceptions of the dating scene, fear of judgement, or just difficulty navigating a multicultural dating scene, a plethora of factors seem to block Sciences Pistes in their pursuit of a fulfilled love life. Maybe hookup culture isn’t the problem. People could be standing in the way of their own happiness, afraid of being the victims of dating gossip. Or maybe everyone is actually in a long-distance relationship (LDRs) and we just don’t know: 67% of those in relationships qualified as LDRs. At 40 responses, we cannot claim that the distribution of survey results is entirely reflected in the Menton campus as a whole (but it is statistically significant!). It seems that the majority of those surveyed perceive a solution to the relationship drought as opening up perspectives, becoming more “progressive.” It is in fact “difficult to date when two people have the same circle, same habits, we know the same persons and are always gonna see each other again on campus.” Others were very candid in their thinking, with one respondent asserting: “Not enough hookups in Menton, the parties need to be spicier!!” ( BDE, take notes. ) But does it have to be that deep? Human beings seek connection—romantic connections are just some in a wider umbrella. If we are mature enough to uproot our lives and move to this far-off place, find our own apartments, sustain ourselves with food (even if it is just pesto pasta), don’t we have the adult-ness to handle interactions with a past hookup or relationship with grace? This could be too much to ask for in a big city. But Menton is different. Things tend to be bigger in our heads (no pun intended). It seems that over 60% of our respondents perceive the Menton relationship culture to be heavily dominated by hookups, while another 30% of respondents view dating culture as pervasive. A few argued that Menton is a mix. What we found to be most accurate was the perception of the 2.5%. These individuals argued that the predominant culture persists as “ gossiping about who everyone else is seeing?” and “complaining about the lack of options.” Yet, the vast majority of respondents indicated that the issue with relationships in general in Menton is that everyone is going to find out, and there’s almost shame … but the ummah is not hooking up very often. Less than a third of respondents reported having sex on a weekly basis—but 40% are in a relationship. And only 30% of respondents are more content with their sex life here, at Sciences Po, than before arriving in Menton… perhaps this response pool overlaps. It most likely does. Don’t despair if you are not content vis-à-vis your “relationship” status. “Ppl [may] suck,” but our time here in this little lemon town is so short. A mere blip in a hopefully long and fruitful life. Although we can’t help the respondent who stated, “the girls here aren’t like her” (that’s tough, man), we may be able to provide some insight into the query: “Why date when you know you’re going to break up?” Doesn’t this extend to every relationship at all points in our lives? When with people from all over the world, the time together becomes all that more precious (even if just for a night). We don’t mean to romanticize ephemeral interest, but if people were more communicative, more open with their interests and wants, less conscientious of speculative judgement at (few and far between) parties, maybe the satisfaction rates would be higher! Who knows, maybe for you 1As, your Valentine’s date for next year just gave a presentation on sanctions in Iraq.

Despite technical limitations and ethical considerations, it’s hard to understate the revolutionary nature of the CRISPR system. In just over a decade, its use has proliferated to the majority of fields within the life sciences, yielding important clinical advances to tackle congenital diseases and understand viral mechanisms that target humans in order to accelerate the vaccine-making process. < Back What's CRISPR, Anyway? Feidias Psaras December 31, 2024 How it came together There was a meeting of minds in Puerto Rico in 2011. At a conference for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats ( CRISPR ) systems and RNA Biology held in San Juan, Emanuelle Charpentier, a young microbiology researcher at the Umeå University in Sweden, presented her findings on a new RNA-protein complex that played a role in the function of a bacterial immune system. The presentation was a wake-up call for Jennifer Doudna, who studied the specific biochemical relationships related to RNA and believed that this mechanism could have wider implications. At the time, the CRISPR molecule was considered a niche field of study rather than the widely used gene editing tool that it has become now. It concerned a specific bacterial defense response against viruses, which involved an enzyme (Cas9) that performed precise incisions in the DNA as well as an attached RNA molecule which led it to the site of interest. In other words, the system was made up of ultra-precise molecular scissors and a guide. But the problem was that the guide could not be replicated by scientists; it was impossible to modify. A year after the conference, the final piece to the puzzle of precise genome editing that spanned decades was finally put in place; working together, Doudna and Charpentier discovered the crucial customizable guide that would allow the natural process to be co-opted in lab conditions outside of the bacterial cells that fostered the conditions that allowed the process to happen naturally. The short time of eight years spanning CRISPR’s discovery and the jointly awarded Nobel prize in Chemistry is just a small indicator of its seismic impact. But as is usual regarding scientific discoveries, it is difficult to understand what the repercussions of even the biggest breakthroughs entail for the future of everyday life. So where should we start? What is genetic engineering, really? Anyone who’s taken a beginner Biology course knows that the cell is the fundamental building block of life. Our bodies are made up of tens of trillions of cells, each with a different set of internal machinery and function. Deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly known as DNA, is the molecular blueprint that exists within each cell and determines its unique functions. This is made possible by the double-helix structure of the DNA itself, which essentially comprises two long strings of molecular code that are copied, sent out into the cytoplasm and used to create all the important molecules that cells need to survive and carry out their function. The important thing to understand here is that the code of the DNA—save for mutations, viral/bacterial invasions and a few other exceptions—stays the same and is the essential determinant of its host cell’s identity. A change in even a single unit of code within the DNA could result in the complete breakdown of the cell or in an improvement of a given function. But the latter, logically enough, happens much more rarely than the former—most mutations are either neutral or detrimental. While natural selection provides a process by which the many bad mutations are filtered out while the few good ones carry themselves to the next generation, ‘bad’ and ‘good’ are relative terms. A watermelon that has an increased seed density has more chances of spreading those seeds and propagate its DNA across generations, but yields less nutritious value for us humans. Genetic engineering, then, is the purposeful manipulation of organisms’ genomes to fit our purposes. Funnily enough, we started doing it thousands of years before we had any idea about DNA; selective breeding of animals and plants to create friendly and obedient dogs out of wolves and sweet and near-seedless watermelons is a testament to that. But this method is not a very effective way to edit genomes. It’s limited to mutations that occur naturally in plants, often taking multiple breeding generations to yield reliable results, and is not precise at all; in naturally occurring mutations, stretches of DNA might be altered along with the gene of interest. What does CRISPR add? Ever since the discovery of DNA in the 20th century, scientists had been coming up with effective ways to induce targeted genome manipulations. Initially, these efforts included bombarding plants with radiation in the hopes that a useful mutation would pop up. In the 70s and 80s, more sophisticated methods developed with the discovery of specialized restriction enzymes that recognized and cut specific sections of DNA, as well co-opting bacteria such as agrobacterium to use as delivery mechanisms for genes of interest into the cell. But still, all of these mechanisms presented significant limitations: while high levels of radiation fast-tracked the process of mutation, researchers had no control over the actual changes occurring over the genetic code; restriction enzymes were fixed, and could only recognize certain sequences of a specific length ; the agrobacterium delivery system worked only in plants and inserted genes randomly in their genomes, thus potentially nullifying their function. Instead, easy manipulation of the CRISPR RNA-protein complex in laboratory settings means that the system is programmable and precise. It can perform different types of ‘incisions’ on any part of the genome depending on the manipulation. The ease and efficiency of this mechanism means that genetic engineering becomes not only incredibly quicker, but also much cheaper. Its performance-enhancing capabilities enable a higher rate of experimentation and therefore discovery. What has CRISPR achieved so far? CRISPR’s versatility opens the door to an entirely new, more hands-on generation of genetic engineering across fields. In terms of agriculture, it provides an important avenue into more efficient and precise genetic altering of plants. As mentioned before, humans have for centuries employed a rudimentary form of genetic manipulation (selective breeding) that is way too imprecise and slow. The same problem exists in different degrees with more modern methods of genetic engineering such as the introduction of new DNA via bacteria. Even though CRISPR technologies are not fully developed yet and their delivery faces difficulties, they are crucial to a more precise and effective creation of GMOs. It means that plants are more resilient to adverse conditions such as extreme temperatures and pesticides, in turn aiding crop outputs in an age of climate change and rapid populational growth. CRISPR-Cas9 also offers a more accurate method to simulate how genes are passed down and mutate across generations. From mammals to insects, the tool has been used to swap out sections of DNA with ones of interest in order to help scientists better understand how these genes behave; whether they have a tendency to replicate and what molecules, if any, they provide the blueprints for. With gene therapy, CRISPR adds an entirely new and powerful treatment method that enhances our clinical toolset. In 2014, the first instance of this was trialled in the UK to treat a patient with sickle cell anaemia. Commercially known as Casgevy, it involved the extraction of the problematic mass-producing cells responsible for the production of defective red blood cells, as well as their subsequent DNA modification before reinserting them back into patients’ bone marrow. Late in 2023, both the UK and US approved the commercial use of such drugs. A slew of other such gene therapy treatments follow; promising treatments for brain and ovarian cancer, diabetes and even AIDS. The emergence of CRISPR gene-editing in a clinical setting, however, poses serious ethical concerns. After gaining governmental permission, for example, researchers in the UK successfully modified human embryos in 2016. Even though they were later discarded, the scientific feat signifies that it is now possible to pick and choose our babies’ genomes. But should we be able to change the genetic makeup of an embryo? If so, would it only be to prevent life-threatening congenital diseases like Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome or less serious medical conditions such as dwarfism as well? Disability activists such as Rebecca Cokley, who views her achondroplasia less as a disease than as a part of her identity, argue that CRISPR is an existential menace to people like her. Purely cosmetic gene edits, such as those that would increase height or intelligence, are even more controversial; the concept of designer babies, previously a fit of science fiction fancy, looms as a frightening prospect that could entrench social inequalities by embedding them into our very genomes. Conclusion Despite technical limitations and ethical considerations, it’s hard to understate the revolutionary nature of the CRISPR system. In just over a decade, its use has proliferated to the majority of fields within the life sciences, yielding important clinical advances to tackle congenital diseases and understand viral mechanisms that target humans in order to accelerate the vaccine-making process. With all this, it’s important to note that the Cas9-system is only the first of many generations to come. Already, discovery of protein complexes such as Cas12 and present more precise and less error-prone mechanisms. In any case, one thing is clear: the discovery of CRISPR marks the beginning of a new age in genetic engineering.