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through Grief – Collective Memory through Music Music has a strange sort of power; it can outlive the moments it was originally made for.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

June 3, 2026 Être élève à SciencesPo quand son pays est en guerre 65% des étudiants du campus de Menton de SciencesPo sont des étudiants internationaux, dont une partie est originaire de pays du Moyen Orient touchés par des conflits ou des crises profondes. Si certains conservent l'espoir d'un retour, d'autres font état d'une « relation difficile avec le pays pour lequel il porte de l’amour mais qu’il a à la fois toujours voulu quitter », ne souhaitant plus y vivre. Ce paradoxe entre attachement et répulsion marque le quotidien de ces étudiants, partagés entre leur cursus en France et les instabilités qui touchent leur pays d'origine. Read More February 25, 2026 Why I Drag a Suitcase to Italy for Groceries Everyone loves the convenience of a quick grocery store run. I, too, once lived that life of luxury. Living a mere two-minute walk from Carrefour, I thought I had made it. I could roll out of bed, grab a pain au chocolat and be back before my coffee cooled. Read More February 25, 2026 The Art of Domestic Failure: An Anthology of Apartment Mishaps You can analyze political theory and debate international policy, but nothing in the Sciences Po curriculum prepares you for the true test of intellect and will: surviving your own apartment. I learned this the hard way, one domestic disaster at a time. Read More December 22, 2025 Menton’s Senior Citizens Won’t Bite: Go Talk to Them! Shortly after arriving in Menton this August, I got the sense that the town’s older residents are not particularly fond of Sciences Pistes. For many students, this might not come as such a shock. After Integration Week, complaints echoed through the Old Town. As one woman eloquently put it, “Sciences Po drove us crazy until 3 in the morning !” The objections vary in subtlety, from frustrated sighs and muttered grievances to water-pouring incidents on the heads of unsuspecting Le Rétro-goers. Read More September 30, 2025 How I Survive the Walk to School Without Losing my Will to Live Everyone loves to brag about how they can roll out of bed five minutes before class and still make it to class on time. (Good for you, king. May your alarm never betray you.) Meanwhile, some of us are out here having our own daily Olympic event—a 20-30 minute trek to campus. Every. Single. Day. Character-building, they say. Trauma, I reply. Read More September 30, 2025 On Becoming Mentonnais Yet, for much of my first few days, the town seemed quite impersonal to me: I felt disconnected. Because for all its beauty, I felt as if Menton always found a way to avoid intimacy. It pushed me to ask, what does it mean to be a part of this town anyways? Read More September 29, 2025 There's No Place Like Home I have always felt that way because “home”, to me, has always been a patchwork. There’s the place you were born, the one you grew up in, the countries tied to your heritage, and now a campus far away from everything you ever knew. Each one of them feels like “home,” but then again none of them quite do. They overlap and argue with each other—they coexist like siblings fighting over the bigger room. Read More September 28, 2025 Locals Versus Students: One Town, Two Communities When you search Menton on the internet, you’re greeted with pictures of lemon trees, sparkling blue water, and beautiful multi-colored buildings dotting the coast. It seems like a no-brainer when choosing your Sciences Po campus – who wouldn’t want to live in one of the most beautiful towns in the world? But as students arrived in August, they began to realize that living in Menton might not be as pleasant as it seems online. Read More September 27, 2025 A Year in Retrospect Accepting that “leaving one place does not mean that I leave my problems behind” is the biggest lesson this place has, accidentally or not, taught me. Being content where one is is a choice, although not an easy one. Life can be a lot of work, even when living on the Riviera. Read More April 30, 2025 An Ode To Menton: Notes From the Edge of France As we 2As prepare for our departure, I wonder what my biased memory will frame my time in Menton to be. Is living in the Côte D’Azur really as luxe as Instagram stories sell-it to be? This is my little reflection to remember the highs and the lows while they're still fresh in my memory. Here are ten lessons (from the 100s) from Menton Read More April 30, 2025 Cocteau’s Azur: Exploring Queerness in Menton At first glance, Menton appears to be a quaint and peaceful town on the French Riviera—a place of leisure, history, and, of course, lemons. But is Menton truly as fruity as it seems? Read More March 31, 2025 Choose Your Fighter: Dual Degree Edition Though they are both great, one has to be better, right? Is being a Lion superior to being a Golden Bear? Are the views of the Bay more attractive than the sights of the Big Apple? Read More

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

March 31, 2026 Interview with Lenka Králová for the International Trans Day of Visibility Lenka is a trans woman, an activist, a parent, a podcaster with two shows called V Tranzu and TLK–Talkshow with Lenka Králová, a person with an incredible sense of fashion, an artist, former IT developer and a new member of the Czech Pirate Party. Read More March 15, 2026 The Question of Palestine as a Feminist Issue Palestine is often discussed as a geopolitical conflict. Yet it is fundamentally a feminist issue. Palestinian women face violence due to the genocide Israel is committing, seen through reproductive violence and healthcare deprivation. This leads Palestinian women to be disproportionately affected by different forms of violence fundamentally shaped by the occupation Read More February 20, 2026 The Art of Becoming: How Movies Help Us Grow Sometimes growth begins in places we do not expect. Not after a life changing event, or a dramatic turning point, but during a movie scene that lasts only a few seconds. A moment so small that, if you were distracted, you could miss completely. Yet for those of us, these seconds can stay with us for longer than entire conversations. They settle in quietly, becoming part of how you remember, feel, and reflect. They touch something inside you before you can understand what is happening. And those few seconds, those tiny pieces of art, can become the beginning of who you are slowly becoming. This is how movies have helped me grow, not through dramatic lessons, but through quiet moments that slowly shape who I am becoming. Read More February 15, 2026 The Iranian Judicial System: Institutionalizing Fear and Repression As mass protests continue to spread in Iran, understanding how the system of arbitrary detention is maintained is crucial in order to determine how it can be addressed. Arbitrary detention encompasses not only illegal detentions but also deprivations of liberty that, even when lawful, are disproportionate, unreasonable, or lack due process. Read More December 5, 2025 Renewal of the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding The International Organization on Migration (IOM) defines the Central Mediterranean route, which passes through Libyan waters, as the “world’s deadliest migratory sea crossing” due to its dangerous waters and the scarce number of search and rescue operations. In 2022 alone, 1,417 people departing from Libya died along the route, while an additional 56,515 people were intercepted and returned to Libya. Read More November 26, 2025 What Women Learn to Endure: How Early Socialization Shapes the Structural Roots of Intimate Partner Violence On average, 24% of women within the EU face Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). In Finland this figure rises to 30% with Denmark being even higher at 32%. In the context of the Nordics, 28% and 27% of Swedish and Norwegian women experienced IPV respectively. These relatively high statistics are described as the Nordic paradox, which explores why countries that are often described as models of egalitarianism face the highest rates of IPV. Read More November 15, 2025 Syria's Invisible Wounds: When Justice Must Rebuild What Violence Destroyed During Human Rights Week, I had the opportunity to hear from Noura Ghazi, a Syrian human rights lawyer and founder of Nophotozone. Her reflections centered on the wounds that linger beneath the surface — wounds inflicted by years of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearances. At the conference “Syria in 2025 : Justice, Memory, and the Road Ahead,” Ghazi addressed one of the most painful chapters in Syria’s recent history. She spoke about the chaotic and sudden opening of prisons controlled by the regime and the dark consequences that followed. Read More November 13, 2025 Beyond Ceasefires: Building Lasting Peace with Art From Shatila to Menton, artist Maryam Samaan turns puppets and knitting into spaces for healing and dialogue. Read More November 11, 2025 Quand le Caire faisait rêver le monde arabe, l’âge d’or du cinéma égyptien. Dans son ouvrage Arab Cinema : History and Cultural Identity (1998), Viola Shafik affirme que l’Egypte était le premier pays arabe à produire une industrie cinématographique dont la production était supérieure, en quantité, à celui des autres nations arabes. Read More April 30, 2025 The Price of Blood: Syria’s Alawites and the Cost of Power Syria’s post-Assad experiment will be judged not only by who governs, but by how it treats those on the losing side of power. Will justice be pursued through institutions, or through revenge? Will Syria embrace unity, or settle into division? These are not abstract questions. They are matters of life and death, national identity and regional balance. Read More April 30, 2025 Syria Today: Post-Assad Turmoil and Efforts to Rebuild Syria’s road to recovery will likely be a tumultuous one—economic frailty, sectarian violence and external pressures weigh upon the government’s next steps. But for the first time in over a decade, the possibility of Syrian-led reconstruction can be seen as within reach. Read More April 30, 2025 The Future of Air Warfare: Sixth-Generation Aircraft & the Race for China, Europe & the U.S. Just as the early 20th century saw an arms race over battleships, today’s world is entering a new era of aerial arms competition, where superiority is not only measured by performance but also by how well systems communicate, adapt and dominate. Ultimately, the effectiveness of these next-generation systems will not be fully known until they are tested—not in simulations, but in war. Read More April 30, 2025 « Tombez amoureux de l’Europe ! » Le message d’espoir du président Enrico Letta Il y a un siècle les Français et les Allemands se battaient pour déplacer leur frontière, aujourd’hui celle-ci ne semble même pas exister quand on la croise. » raconte Letta à l’ouverture de l’interview. Il faut trouver une histoire globale européenne, et comment cette institution bénéficie à tous les citoyens. Read More April 30, 2025 Sanctions: The Key to a Longstanding, Powerful, Authoritarian Regime Sanctions do more than empty out grocery aisles and indirectly kill the innocent recipients. While the proposed intention is to combat autocratic regimes through economic means, rather than traditional uses of violence, the effect is often counterintuitive, propping up the very regimes they aim to weaken. Read More March 31, 2025 From Paradise to Perimeter Defence: What Making the Pacific a Military Playground Means for its Indigenous People It's a smart idea—if you’re the US government. Get rid of all your pesky hazardous material on an irrelevant island 6,607 miles away from the land of the free. Burn it up, blow it up, it’s all the same. Unfortunately for everyone else, the cost-benefit analysis is slightly less clear-cut. Read More March 31, 2025 Marseille, toujours une ville d’immigration? Marseille, deuxième ville de France, port phare de la Méditerranée, permet de comprendre la complexité du rapport entre la France et l’immigration. Une sorte de « je t’aime, moi non plus », d’une réécriture de la véritable histoire de l’imigration, ou encore d’un profond melting pot urbain. D’un côté, Marseille est une des villes les plus cosmopolites de France, avec une partie de la population favorable à plus d’immigration. D’un autre, un électorat de plus en plus séduit par les discours anti-immigration du Rassemblement national (RN). Read More March 31, 2025 Hey Chat! How sustainable are you? When we speculate about the takeover of artificial intelligence, we envision robots and robots with human-like abilities toppling the human race. However, as humans continue to deplete their own environment without regard to the rights of others, it becomes more and more clear that the revolution of artificial intelligence is already underway. At this rate, it is not the machines that will destroy us, but rather ourselves. Read More February 28, 2025 America First, Migrants Last: Trump’s New Southern Border Policy Trump’s new border policy isn’t as simple as just closing the border and getting “terrorists the hell out” of the United States. It encompasses a myriad of endeavors, each dealing a blow to the U.S.’ immigration program, which comprises one-fifth of the entire world’s international migrants. Read More February 28, 2025 Corps et Conscience: L’Écriture révoltée de Nawal El Saadawi La liberté implique-t-elle nécessairement la solitude? Ou bien avons-nous, malgré tout, besoin d’un témoin, d’un appui, d’une présence pour exister pleinement? Read More February 28, 2025 Le traitement des prisonniers après la guerre dans le Haut-Karabagh (2023) Dans un communiqué de presse du 17 janvier 2025, Amnesty International appelle la communauté internationale à suivre de près ce procès, pour garantir le droit de Ruben Vardanyan à un procès équitable et à une bonne administration de la justice. Reste à voir si la communauté internationale va répondre à cet appel. Read More

June 10, 2026 L’abolitionnisme pénal : repenser le contrôle social au-delà de la punition Dans toutes les sociétés, des règles existent pour faire tenir les individus ensemble. La question centrale est celle de leur respect : comment faire pour que ces normes soient effectivement suivies ? Historiquement, la réponse a souvent été la punition. Le système pénal moderne, à travers ses institutions – police, justice, prison – incarne cette logique : dissuader, sanctionner, réprimer les comportements jugés déviants. La prison, en particulier, s’est imposée depuis le XIXe siècle comme la peine de référence, au point de sembler aujourd’hui indissociable de l’idée même de justice. Read More We Watch, We Feel, We Scroll: Susan Sontag’s ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ and the War in Iran Images emerge from Iran with unsettling regularity: mothers mourning their children, bodies of Iranian martyrs killed by the IRGC during the crackdown in black bags, and quasi-apocalyptic scenes of explosions in Tehran. And then, just as quickly, they disappear from collective attention. Not because the suffering ends, but because the audience moves on. Read More The Celebration of Oppression To be Algerian-French means learning about your history through the voice of the colonizer. And it is more often than not immensely glorified. Read More April 12, 2026 Eulogy to Joy In March 2025, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed to the world that American national-security officers discussed highly classified information in a group chat in which he was accidentally included. While American media focused on whether the leak risked American lives, European leaders got the chance to see how America’s most powerful talked about Europe behind closed doors. Read More April 8, 2026 Le culte de la performance: le toujours plus à quel prix ? Se réveiller plus tôt, travailler plus longtemps, raccourcir le temps accordé aux loisirs : La performance est devenue un élément central dans nos vies. Que se passe-t-il quand la recherche du toujours plus nous pénalise ? Read More April 1, 2026 Les Palestiniens l’ont-ils bien cherché ? La nécessaire chasse aux mensonges sur le conflit israélo-palestinien par Sandrine Mansour-Mérien Tout le monde connaît les phrases toutes faites. On les répète comme si elles allaient de soi : « Civilisation contre barbarie », « Les Kurdes sont les pions des Occidentaux », « Les Arabes n’ont jamais accepté la modernité »… À force d’être répétées, ces formules finissent par s’imposer comme des évidences. On ne les vérifie plus, on les suppose. La question israélo-palestinienne n’échappe pas à ce mécanisme. Read More April 1, 2026 American Patriotism at the Milan Olympics in the Age of Trump Every Olympic Games opens with a patriotic parade featuring all the athletes, each team entering the stadium waving their national flag. At the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, the United States of America athlete delegation was greeted with cheers and applause. However, when the cameras cut to Vice President JD Vance in the stands, the audience’s sounds of support quickly morphed into prolonged boos and jeers. Read More JO d’hiver de Milan-Cortina : le prestige olympique face à la crise écologique Face au défi climatique, les Jeux d'hiver italiens transforment les sommets alpins en un territoire où le prestige sportif tente de s'affranchir des limites biologiques du massif. Read More M-A-M-D-A-N-I Zohran Kwame Mamdani is now the mayor-elect of the wealthiest city in one of the richest countries on Earth. His victory represents a political trajectory that is both atypical and deeply revealing of contemporary America. Born in an Ugandan-Indian family, raised between continents and immersed in environments rich in academic and artistic capital due to his parents’ careers: he occupies a complex place in the American social landscape. This matters, not as a critique but as context. His political language is formed by a democratic political economy and urban class analysis as much as by lived experience. You could hear it during the several live debates he participated in, in his cadence, see it in his references and definitely feel it in his policy design: it’s disciplined, detailed and unapologetically people-centered. Read More The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World War is war. No matter when it starts, where it is or who ends up carrying its weight. I’m usually the first to argue that suffering should never be compared, but in the cases of Sudan and Yemen, comparison becomes almost unavoidable. Not to decide who suffers more nor to rank tragedies, but to confront the world’s selective outrage and the chilling apathetic silence that allows some wars to disappear from collective memory. Read More December 19, 2025 Les périls de la culture compétitive dans l’éducation L’algorithme de Parcoursup, en faisant varier la valeur des élèves selon leurs résultats scolaires mais aussi en faisant respecter de critères spécifiques pour certaines filières, incarne parfaitement le paradigme compétitif qui structure le système éducatif français. Ce système éducatif repose sur une survalorisation de la compétition entre les élèves : les évaluations et classements sont constants, l’apprentissage coopératif absent. Read More De l’autre côté du mur : voix arabes face à la mission civilisatrice Dans son discours d’investiture du 20 janvier 2025, Trump, acteur autoproclamé du renouveau civilisationnel, appelle les Américains à agir « avec le courage, la vigueur et la vitalité de la plus grande civilisation de l’histoire. » Et, comme tout bon pays prétendument civilisé, il faudrait évidemment montrer l’exemple à ceux qui seraient restés dans la barbarie, ceux qui n’auraient pas encore « évolué. » Read More November 13, 2025 Nostalgie historique et la génération Z: liaisons dangereuses ? Des salles de bals étincelantes de Bridgerton à l'aesthetic Regency Core sur les réseaux sociaux, la génération Z semble obnubilée par une période qu’elle n’a jamais vécu. Comment peut-on expliquer cette fascination pour un monde vieux de deux siècles ? Read More #GenZ 212 When Luffy’s Jolly Roger was hoisted from Nepal’s Singha Durbar palace, it instantly became a symbol of something larger. Over the past few months, a wind of protests has swept across the globe. From Nepal to Madagascar, Kenya to Peru, Indonesia, the Philippines and Morocco: the youth, unwilling to inherit a broken system, have taken to the streets to prove that their future is daring and won’t be silenced. Read More التعليم في تونس: بين المساواة المنشودة والواقع الجندري في الصفوف الدراسية Read More November 2, 2025 Vlogging Live From Kabul: The Insights and Absurdities of YouTube Conflict Tourism In the past few years, an increasing number of intrepid content creators are documenting their journeys to places of conflict. They acquire rare visas, hire local tour guides, and point iPhone cameras through the streets as they seek to capture the ‘real’ version of these countries—places whose very essence is often reduced to fearful headlines and apocalyptic imagery. This phenomenon, known as conflict tourism, ranges from visiting historically troubled areas to entering zones of active conflict, and has taken on an entirely new significance in the age of vlogging. Read More Pourquoi Trouver une Information Fiable est Devenu si Compliqué Aujourd’hui omniprésente dans nos vies, l’information s’est profondément transformée. Ses canaux aussi. Dès lors, contrôler sa qualité devient un enjeu crucial pour éclairer notre opinion. Read More September 26, 2025 Le silence de la foule : comprendre l'effet spectateur Une rue commerçante bondée, un cri de détresse surgit. Pourtant, personne ne réagit. Cette situation hypothétique avec des comportements à première vue impensables est une réalité bien plus répandue que l'on ne le croit. Read More September 25, 2025 Calais: Between Migration and Solidarity When I first announced to my family that I would be doing my parcours civique with Care4Calais, a British organization that provides non-food items to refugees, most of my relatives acted as if I was about to become a war photographer in Sudan. Despite them, I managed to not have any image of Calais in mind before actually arriving. So what was Calais really like? Read More April 30, 2025 Vivre la Guerre à Travers un Écran: la Bataille des Récits Les algorithmes amplifient les contenus qui suscitent le choc et l'émotion, même si ceux-ci ne reflètent qu'une partie de la réalité. Ainsi, les zones de conflits moins spectaculaires ou celles qui ne répondent pas aux critères de viralité demeurent dans l’ombre. Read More

June 10, 2026 The Reinvention of Coachella Since the beginning of the year, 2026 has been dubbed “the new 2016” across various social media platforms. Young people online seem to be yearning for a resurgence of how life was ten years ago. The rose-tinted social media filter has been revived and 2016 pop music is having its moment, with Zara Larsson’s hit “Lush Life” reentering the Billboard’s Top 100 for the first time in years. Read More June 3, 2026 Comment Hollywood a façonné la figure de l’Arabe Le 25 novembre 1992, aux États-Unis, environ 1,5 million de personnes quittent leurs domiciles un jour de week-end pour se rendre au cinéma le plus proche. Et pour cause : c’est la première diffusion du film Aladdin, production tant attendue du groupe Disney. Une histoire d’amour entre un voleur pauvre surnommé « Diamant brut » pour son cœur en or, et une princesse prisonnière de son statut, qui rêve de se rebeller contre les traditions… Quoi de mieux pour faire rêver les amateurs d’amour impossible ? Read More March 15, 2026 Cinéma et masculinisme : comment les films cultes nourrissent la manosphère En 1999, David Fincher livrait Fight Club, portrait d'une génération d'hommes désœuvrés, englués dans le consumérisme et en quête désespérée de sens. Vingt-cinq ans plus tard, le film n'a pas seulement acquis un statut culte, il est également devenu une sorte de texte sacré pour les communautés masculinistes en ligne. Dans les forums incels, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) est érigé en modèle de virilité à retrouver, et ses répliques sont scandées comme des mantras sur les réseaux sociaux. Read More February 23, 2026 Le True crime: quand l’horreur devient divertissement Imaginez regarder les aventures de meurtres comme ceux de Jeffrey Dahmer ou l’affaire des frères Menendez. C’est ce que propose la série Netflix Monsters qui, malgré les polémiques, a tout de même enregistré 12,3 millions de vues lors des quatre premiers jours du lancement de la deuxième saison. Read More November 13, 2025 The Mediterranean Charm: Why Writers and Painters Keep Coming Back to This Sea On a tranquil Mentonnais weekend, two weeks before the midterms rush, I boarded a train bound for Antibes. As I wandered through its cobbled streets, the Mediterranean shimmered next to me, breathing light into every corner of the city; a scene not so different from that of my hometown in Alexandria, Egypt. Apparently, this feeling of familiarity with this vast blue sea is nothing new—a feeling shared by many people no matter on which shore one is standing. Read More November 10, 2025 “When They Tell You to Sing, You Just Sing.”: The Khmer Rouge’s Musical Manipulation of Cambodian Society “If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Read More October 23, 2025 Is being a Virgin as Cool as Being a BRAT? : A Review of Lorde’s Latest Studio Album BRAT was summer. BRAT was coming to terms with your suppressed desires, the hate you bore and the complicated friendships you were a part of. The fun, the ugly and the embarrassing. It was about the euphoria of partying into the light of early summer mornings and the walks of shame back home. Drug abuse, sex, and all other kinds of highs of life was what BRAT encompassed. It encouraged difficult conversations about fertility and friendship, revealing that fame doesn’t equate feelings getting spared or receiving grace. Read More October 5, 2025 Is Romance Dead?: How Reality TV Shows Reflect Modern Dating How does watching strangers fall in love on national television reflect the most complicated parts of our emotional lives – dating? The transition from heartful romcoms to dating shows such as Love Island, Love is Blind or Too Hot to Handle perhaps indicate romance has died. Read More September 30, 2025 Politicizing the Heartland: The Conservative Instrumentalization of Country Music Given country music’s association with the American South and its conservative majority, it is difficult to ignore the correlation of country music's revival with the rise of the far-right in the US. However, can one link these phenomena? Is country music inseparable from conservatism? Read More September 28, 2025 Americans on the Riviera At the start of the 1920s, although hard to imagine today, the Riviera was practically deserted during the summer months. Hotels and restaurants catering to the European elite would close shop after spring, as their wealthy patrons would leave for colder climates. The Murphys were the first to convince hotels in Antibes to stay open during the summer months, as a way to host their American friends. Thus beginning the transformation of the Riviera into the summer destination it is today. Read More September 28, 2025 Threads of Memory: The Story of Palestinian Tatreez In Palestine, threads carry stories. Each stitch of tatreez — the traditional Palestinian embroidery — embodies memory, identity, and resilience. On a quiet afternoon, an elderly woman sits with fabric in her lap, weaving patterns passed down through generations. Read More September 27, 2025 The Pen, the Camera, and the Microphone: The Egyptian Kit of Soft Power The truth is this: Egypt has never ruled merely by sword or throne. Its empire was always one of imagination, where a pen could be sharper than steel, a song louder than artillery, and a camera brighter than any spotlight. The world may forget armies, but it remembers stories. And Egypt has always known how to tell them. Read More April 30, 2025 “Clean Girl” or “White Girl”? Exploring Racial Double Standards in the Fashion Industry It’s time to embrace these styles as more than just ‘trends’, but as a long-lived facet of Black culture. Recognizing the enormous influence that Black communities have had on fashion and aesthetics will allow for the long-overdue dismantling of structural hegemonies, which not only ignore Black culture but also build an alarming double standard between races in the fashion industry. Read More April 30, 2025 Thrifting and the Price of Exclusion: Gentrifying Secondhand Stores in Toronto The question of immorality does not pertain to the act of thrifting itself, but how the thrift environment has been redesigned to serve corporate interests at the expense of those it was initially designed to support. Read More March 31, 2025 Who is “Saving” Europe? In the digital age, the responsibility of verifying and trusting information falls on us, the users. While content under the branding of Save Europe might not be falsified, it is deliberately presented with emotional imagery, evocative music and slogans—blurring the line between political activism and propaganda. Read More March 31, 2025 Fasting, not a dividing element after all Fasting in different religions does not divide us. It just makes us realize how similar we are, how we have the same needs, temptations and desires. And that’s precisely what I realized when I came to Menton, a campus full of diversity—ethnically, culturally and religiously. At the core, we are all the same… Read More March 31, 2025 Love is in the Air? Une Lutte Contre le Vent If the campus is about 70% female and 30% male, and of the women, 75% are available and heterosexual, and of the men, about half are gay and maybe 25% are in a relationship, how many available, straight men does that leave for the single women, keen and looking? No need to do the math. We are not all EcoSoc majors. To put it simply, the answer is not a lot. Read More March 31, 2025 Le racisme aussi peut être pluraliste Sans qu’on puisse mettre un trait d’égalité entre le RN et la Nouvelle droite, il faut saisir l’apport essentiel de cette mouvance à l’extrême-droite tant sur le plan idéologique que sur la formation intellectuelle de ses cadres. La Nouvelle droite est une entreprise de blanchiment car derrière le ‘pluralisme’ dont elle se targue, se cache directement le nazisme et le néo-fascisme terroriste. La grande blanchisserie aujourd’hui est le Rassemblement national. Read More March 31, 2025 With Prada and Ten Protagonists on to a new self-destruction feminism Feminism does not always require being vocal, an activist, or engaging in mass mobilization. Sometimes resisting is retreating—in the choice to withdraw from cultural pressures knowingly. Dissociative feminism expands the scope of what feminist action can entail. Read More March 31, 2025 A Review of the Oscars The Oscars, once regarded as the highest award form of artistic recognition, have increasingly been subject to scrutiny over their selection process, inclusivity and cultural relevance. While the ceremony continues to attract global attention for viewers tuning in from all over the globe, one cannot help but ask: is the Academy truly honoring the best in cinema, or is it simply reinforcing the industry’s biases and political inclinations? Read More

April 12, 2026 Eulogy to Joy In March 2025, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed to the world that American national-security officers discussed highly classified information in a group chat in which he was accidentally included. While American media focused on whether the leak risked American lives, European leaders got the chance to see how America’s most powerful talked about Europe behind closed doors. Read More December 10, 2025 Iraq at the Ballots On Nov. 11 Iraqis went to the parliamentary election ballots to determine who gets the 329 seats on Iraq’s Council of Representatives. Read More October 31, 2025 What Happened to Freedom of Speech? Kirk’s murder came as a shock to many across the United States, sparking a wide range of reactions. Fellow right-wing activists and conservative politicians publicly grieved the loss of their friend and colleague, while left-wing politicians openly condemned the act of political violence, reiterating the need for gun reform in America. Online, however, the general reaction was much less mournful. People flocked online to criticize politicians for “martyring” Kirk, who spouted many racist, sexist and discriminatory views throughout his career. Many questioned whether this was a man who deserved to be honored. Read More October 23, 2025 General Debate in the UN Assembly Annalena Baerbock of Germany, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2025, served as the President of the General Assembly and declared the theme of this year's debate as “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.” Baerbock began her remarks by highlighting the plight of children in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, and gang violence in Haiti. Moving on, she stated that cynics of the United Nations needed to realize that the “the [United Nations] Charter, our Charter, is only as strong as Member States’ willingness to uphold it,” encouraging the rest of the delegates to “act when action is needed.” Read More October 21, 2025 Le néolibéralisme à la française «La France est un enfer fiscal.» Cette expression fréquemment reprise dans certains médias appuie la critique d’un État où les charges et impôts étoufferaient l’initiative privée. Derrière cette formule se devine le cœur du discours néolibéral : réduire les fonctions sociales de l'État pour laisser libre cours au fonctionnement ‘naturel’ du marché. Read More October 21, 2025 ‘Will this recognition bring back my family?’ The recognition of the State of Palestine by France is not a sudden decision, influenced by other nations; rather, it is one that the state has been working towards since July. Read More September 30, 2025 3 Ans Après le Meurtre de Mahsa Amini, un Bilan sur la Situation des Femmes en Iran Le 16 septembre 2025 marque le troisième anniversaire du décès de Mahsa Amini aux mains du régime iranien. La politique répressive envers les femmes perdure. Cependant, l’Iran a connu d'importants bouleversements à la suite de cet outrage, notamment portés par le mouvement international Femme, vie, liberté. Ces mobilisations ont-elles réellement amélioré la condition des femmes ? Trois ans après, faisons le point sur la société iranienne depuis le soulèvement Femme, vie, liberté. Read More September 30, 2025 L'OCS ou la Peur a L'Occident Le 1er septembre 2025, lors du sommet annuel de l’Organisation de Coopération de Shanghai (OCS), Xi Jinping dénonçait une « mentalité de guerre froide » et des « actes d’intimidation » visant implicitement l’administration américaine. Ces propos, repris dans de nombreux médias occidentaux, renforcent une certaine inquiétude quant à la montée en puissance de la Chine. Read More April 30, 2025 Protests in Türkiye: The Fight for “Hak, Hukuk, Adalet!” The question emerged: if a regime could erase a diploma, why wouldn't it also erase an election? After İmamoğlu was detained, hundreds of protesters took to the streets. The first act came from Istanbul University, where students gathered in front of the main gates with banners that read “Diplomamı değil, geleceğimi çaldınız!” (“You didn’t just steal my diploma, you stole my future!”). Read More April 30, 2025 Change in the Republic of Moldova Whether the new governance delivered all they had promised is of secondary importance; what matters most is that in the last four years, the country has been more open to the West than ever before.; Let us hope it will continue like this and one day, they will be a part of the greater European family. Read More March 31, 2025 Recentering the Fight Against Climate Change from Innovation to Tradition Developed across millennia and passed down through generations, Indigenous knowledge carries “ancient and intergenerational wisdom that is flexible, fluid, and adaptive.” Read More March 31, 2025 The 51st State? Trump, Absorbing Canada, Sovereignty and American Foreign Policy Trump carried strict economic goals into his second term, imposing trade tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico to help stunt immigration into the U.S. While his economic nationalism persists, Trump’s threats of annexation peel back a new layer of his foreign policy plan. Read More February 28, 2025 Tug-of-War: Chinese and American Shared Interest in Greenland Greenland has become a focal point of strategic competition between the U.S. and China, with a mutual struggle risking triggering a new arena for great power rivalry. As China grapples with economic challenges and the U.S. seeks to reinforce its Arctic presence, it has become clear that Greenland could play a crucial role in shaping the future of international dynamics. Read More February 28, 2025 “Mom I arrived”: Two Years Since the Tragedy of Tempi I cannot help but be haunted by the thought that this could have been us—the idea that my family, my friends and even myself could have been the ones inside this train. Ever since then, every train that leaves the station bears with it a weight of terror, darkness, and silence… Read More February 28, 2025 The Implications of the Piraeus Port As Part Of The Belt and Road Initiative Although we cannot predict the outcomes of the significant Chinese ownership of Piraeus, the fact that Greece’s biggest port is owned by a foreign power will have an important impact on its future policies, as well as its relations with other countries. Whether Greece will be able to successfully balance in between, without completely becoming dependent on either power, is to be determined. Read More February 28, 2025 Introduction to the Cyprus Problem: History and Attempts at Solution President Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus and President Tatar of the TRNC agreed to meet in May of this year under the aegis of the UN to kickstart another round of talks for the reunification of the island. What has created what the leaders in both communities, despite their sizeable ideological gaps, see as an opportunity for reconciliation? Read More January 31, 2025 Can We Cope with COP? The first COP was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995; under a framework of international cooperation, with various required reduction targets for “developed country Parties,” COP stands as the singular format for climate negotiations in the global space. But it’s not enough anymore—if it ever was in the first place. Read More January 31, 2025 Is South Korean Democracy Threatened? Polarization of society and the rise of far-right rhetoric can very well be found in many other democracies, but South Korea is an example of two things in particular: an extreme attempt at suppressing the opposition and functioning democratic institutions. Read More January 31, 2025 The Syrian Question We all heard that the Assad regime toppled after 50 years of dictatorship. However, recent history taught us that such overthrows and their subsequent reforms are illusory in the end, seductive at first and inevitably and ultimately evanescent. Will this be the case for Syria? Will it repeat the history of its neighbors? And if not, will it become an Islamic republic, as the actual leaders seem to desire? Read More January 31, 2025 Embedding Sustainability Constitutionally What is a government saying to its people by enshrining the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment? It marks this right as one that it will prioritize, as “the protection of the natural environment is an obligation of the state.” The difference this amendment brings, alongside pioneering cases in Europe, is that citizens can hold their governments accountable with regard to their actions or inaction. Read More

Our beloved SciencesPistes became more comfortable both on and off the slopes — daring to dive into challenging skiing and dynamic conversations. < Back Menton à SuperDévoluy: Sciences Pistes Spend Last Week of Break at BDS Ski Trip By Gigi Hodes January 30, 2022 When 2A Samanéa Rousseau, president of the Bureau des Sports (BDS) on campus, sent a flyer advertising a ski trip for students, I was apprehensive to sign up. The task of organizing a trip to the Alps for 50 SciencesPistes seemed Herculean and I was unsure whether it would work out. Now, after returning from the trip, I am so glad I went. The five-day experience was a great way to spend some time outdoors, connect with nature, and bond with other students. The adventure began with a schlep to the stadium. There, we boarded the bus that took us to SuperDévoluy, a ski resort a few hours north of Menton in the French Alps. The excitement was palpable — for the first few hours, everyone was chattering away. Our journey lasted around six hours, but in this distance, we managed to go from sunny Menton to snow-capped mountains. After disembarking with our luggage, it was time to check into our rooms at the Hameau du Puy residence and get settled in. A few sighs of frustration later, (doing an état des lieux in a mountain hotel is no more fun than in a seaside apartment, especially with a 200 euro deposit on the line), we were ready to explore. I was most excited to play in the snow; it had been years since I had seen it piled up like that. We all immediately donned our snow pants and went outside. Suddenly, I felt a cold thud against my right shoulder. I turned around to see a gloating 2A Isabella Aouad, proud of her aim. After that, it was on. We spent a good hour tumbling across the landscape, hitting each other with snowballs until we were all exhausted and ready for some beauty sleep. Though the sound of my alarm the next morning was not exactly welcome, I was excited to hit the slopes — skiing was a childhood favorite for me. I felt butterflies at the thought of returning to it now, at least a meter taller and 10 years older. Thankfully, the BDS took care of the equipment rental package, including the (objectively uncomfortable) ski boots and bright helmets. For beginners like 2A Paris Sistilli, it was a bit daunting to head out to experience the sport for the first time. However, there was an instructor waiting on the bunny hill to teach the 15-person group the basics. The rest of us split up to tackle what SuperDévoluy had to offer. At first, people were more comfortable sticking to their friend groups from home or their flatmates. However, as the trip progressed, it became more practical to organize according to skill level and confidence, which meant spending quality time with people you may never have gotten to know. 1A Sienna Bertamini was pushed outside of her comfort zone and forced to make new relationships with 2As since not many people in her cohort decided to come. She explained that it was nice to build connections with people outside of her closer core. According to her, this bonding was especially fostered during group dinners and other collective activities. She said, “it was like Integration Week all over again … it definitely helped with bonding.” Another 1A agreed, saying that interactions became more fluid by the second or third day. People bridged the gaps that usually split the Ummah. There was an overwhelming sense of solidarity and collaboration when it came to the sport, with advanced skiers often offering to help the beginners and pushing them to feel more confident. This led to a group of novices tackling a blue slope (easy-intermediate level) together for the first time! Though the trip had some serious hiccups (a torn ligament here, sliced finger there), it was a really fun experience overall. We had amazing weather; all blue skies after fresh snow — nearly perfect powder conditions. Our beloved SciencesPistes became more comfortable both on and off the slopes — daring to dive into challenging skiing and dynamic conversations. As a 2A who is nearing the end of her time on campus, I thought this was an exciting way to kick off the semester, as it fostered bonding across the Ummah and helped me start the year on the right foot.

Israel has issued a new set of regulations, to be taken into effect next month, that would impose further limits on foreigners’ entry into the West Bank. < Back Israel Cracks Down on West Bank Accessibility By Ghazal Khalife September 30, 2022 Israel has issued a new set of regulations, to be taken into effect next month, that would impose further limits on foreigners’ entry into the West Bank. The restriction stirring up the most controversy is the new obligation to formally declare a romantic relationship with a Palestinian to be granted access into the area. Other seemingly arbitrary regulations, such as quotas on visas given to students and lecturers, also perplexed commentators. The original draft of this set of protocols, published by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), stipulated that foreigners who start a serious romantic relationship with Palestinian residents of the West Bank must inform the authorities “within 30 days of the start of this relationship.” However, following criticism and condemnation from human rights activists, Palestinian legal experts and many leading figures in the international community, Israel released a revised 90-page document that omitted this clause. The revised version states that foreigners who wish to live with their spouses in the Judea and Samaria area, the biblical name for the West Bank, must apply for a visiting permit 45 days before their trip. The document also cements the ban on giving residency status to them, leaving many families under the constant stress of being denied entry and legal status. According to Part four of the revised document, “Spousal permits will be issued for a maximum term of one year each time.” Furthermore, the total period that any visitor can stay in the West Bank is 27 months (including visa extensions), after which a “cooling off” period is required. If visitors wish to re-enter the area, they must start a new application process. Not only is this process intensely bureaucratic and time-consuming, but permits are also subject to arbitrary refusals. Ultimately, the COGAT official decides whether or not the permit is approved, as seen in Clause 10: “the authorized COGAT official is the authority who decides whether to deny a foreigner entry into the Judea and Samaria area.” In addition to the public backlash against the initial draft of new protocols, Israeli human rights activists in Hamoked, Center For the Defense of the Individual, and Palestinian activists quickly denounced the protocols’ international law violations and started challenging them in court. Jessica Montell, director of Hamoked, explains that these policies are manifestations of a “belligerent occupation.” Even the American ambassador, Tom Tide, expressed his strong disappointment over the new restrictions and declared having engaged in negotiations with Israel to revise the regulations. Nonetheless, COGAT’s changes to the original rules remain largely superficial since only the contentious quotas on lecturers allowed entry and the declaration of a love-interest were removed. According to the United Nations and Palestinian legal experts, there is no solid legal basis for Israel’s past restrictions on movement or these new regulations. Israel, however, derives license to enact its restrictive policies from the Interim Peace Accords of the 1990s and “security concerns.” Furthermore, with Israel controlling most entrances to the West Bank with heavily militarized checkpoints and frequent Israeli Defense Force inspections, these regulations are likely to be reinforced strictly. The document specifies that any application for a permit needs to be accompanied by a deposit of up to 20,050 dollars that can be confiscated in the case of a breach of the permit’s conditions. These measures reaffirm the Israeli state’s insistence on following tough restrictions and consolidating years of aggressive military occupation. Perhaps the most apparent consequences of these regulations on individuals’ private lives are the tolls they take on existing family ties and the immense obstacles they create for Palestinians who want to marry people of other nationalities. The new regulations raise the question of why Israel would enforce such exhaustive measures on the partners of Palestinians. An aim could be to put pressure on Palestinian civil life and further isolate Palestinian citizens of the West Bank from the outside world. Palestinians living in the West Bank are already struggling with heavy restrictions on autonomy under a convoluted and opaque system. From long lines at checkpoints to limitations on working hours, everyday life for Palestinians in the West Bank is only getting more difficult. These new protocols also regulate business and academic activities; thus, businessmen, professors, and students are impacted. The process for obtaining a permit is often costly and time-consuming as applications need to be started at least two months in advance, and applicants must fit an extensive set of criteria and undergo detailed background checks by COGAT officials before being let into the West Bank. Restrictions on the entry of goods and skilled labor cause Palestinian businesses to struggle to expand and modernize. Bassim Khoury, CEO of Pharmacare, comments, “having to obtain a confirmation a month ahead will make it impossible for many foreign partners we have to be part of the business. The immediate effect is that we will have a harder time developing our business.” Lecturers and students must also satisfy COGAT’s list of academic credentials, age and medical insurance conditions. An especially troubling limitation for undergraduate students holding the visiting permit makes it “forbidden to seek employment in the Area.” Mariya Gabriel, head of the European Commission for research and culture, criticized these measures saying, “With Israel itself benefiting greatly from Erasmus, the Commission considers that it should facilitate and not hinder access of students to Palestinian universities.” Moreover, these restrictions do not apply to Israeli settlers, further emphasizing the apartheid policies in the occupied territories. These regulations directly serve settlers as they pose obstacles to all corners of Palestinian life and make the dream of a prosperous Palestinian state ever more elusive. Although, in reality, the prospect of a two-state solution has already been abandoned by many Palestinians who fear more evictions, fewer rights and continuing aggression. These new protocols perfectly conform to Israel’s 55-year policy toward occupied Palestinians, anchoring decades of discrimination and oppression. To understand the reasoning behind Israel’s policy in this highly contested area, it is crucial to analyze how these new regulations fit within the larger scheme of events since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank following the Six-Day War of 1967. Since then, Israel has pursued a consistent policy of sponsoring settlements and institutionalizing discrimination against Palestinians. As a result, lasting peace in the West Bank seems almost impossible. Arbitrary arrests forced evictions and bureaucratic restrictions on movement, among other manifestations of de facto annexation, make life in the West Bank turbulent. This is part of Israel’s plan to formally annex the region, a plan hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and Donald’s Trump loss in the 2020 U.S. elections. Annexing the West Bank and finally uniting the Israeli state has been the conclusive goal for many Israeli politicians, most notably former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This final policy will subject the area to Israeli rather than international law. Israel is heading in this direction even though it violates international conduct and may be reprimanded, especially because Joe Biden has not yet given Israel the green light. Annexation or military occupation — these words serve merely as semantics for Palestinians having to face ever-deteriorating living conditions amidst an Arab and international community that is increasingly desensitized to their suffering. A quote from one of my Palestinian friends summarizes the situation rather powerfully: “They want to prevent us from spreading our culture and practicing our identity because only then will they reach their full victory.” When observing the general trend in Israeli policy in the West Bank, the new regulations and how they infringe on Palestinians’ right to privacy and freedom of movement make it seem as though it is highly unlikely for any tangible improvements to take place even in the face of international criticism, leaving Palestinians wondering how much more they still have to withstand.

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

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

In an environment where we are all united by our fervent interest in politics, international relations and heated discussions, discreet yet extraordinary artists walk among us, almost unnoticed. < Back Sciences Po: An Artist’s Perspective By Isabella Hehl Dalla Zuanna December 31, 2022 In an environment where we are all united by our fervent interest in politics, international relations and heated discussions, discreet yet extraordinary artists walk among us almost unnoticed. After discovering a fellow student with such talents, I was amazed by her gift of composing original music, writing psychological short stories and creating beautiful visual art. Her discretion concerning her abilities first went overlooked; however, once I was exposed to them, I suddenly saw a different side of her: her quiet observation of others, her unique perspective on the conditions of existence, and especially: her view on Sciences Po and Sciences Pistes, which was so different from mine, and so much more beautiful. This Sciences Piste, Qiuyi He, is a Chinese exchange student from the London School of Economics (LSE). Over a month ago, I decided that I needed to interview her — she deserved attention for her sharp and original mind, and Sciences Pistes should know of her. To her, “music is like my bed, where I can sneak in when I feel depressed, and art is the sample of my time. Writing to me is like blood.” Using art to show her true self — the side both known to the public and the side she keeps private — I understood that, to her, the world is art, and her perspective on the university I have become accustomed to for the last semester would radically change mine. I also hoped to share with other Sciences Pistes the advice she gave me: in an era of transition, where my opportunities are endless and my future is completely unknown, finding what I want in life and solidifying my sense of identity can be eased through artistic methods. Many of her written pieces twirl around questions of identity. When I asked about those, she responded, “I consider art an exit for emotions…that you don’t usually show in front of people. It’s an exit to leave these things out and (evoke) something in other people. I really love the word ‘resonance’ because for those creative works, not just visual art, but writing, music, you find something identical when you listen to it, when you see it, so it’s like something that links you with others. Pain is (expressed) more… than happiness in music or visual arts. I use visual art for identity, pain and personal growth.” Art can have a beautiful and even reviving impact on others’ lives: “If I had no art, I would have been dead a hundred times. Art is saving me from those emotions like floods. Art is giving me fresh air to breathe from reality. I always say reading and composing art is sort of like escaping... By extracting two hours from your day and just concentrating on one thing, peacefully, without any disturbance, it’s a kind of way to live with yourself, truly.” According to Qiuyi, although “everybody is crazy about political science” at Sciences Po, we may not notice how important of a role art plays in connecting us, as she believes that “everybody is born an artist.” Even in simple activities such as the stone painting of the Bureau Des Élèves, just several paint brush strokes can cause art to emerge. The beauty of art perhaps lies in its duality: everyone creates something unique, yet which can be seen and felt by all; it can also express such pain and tragedy, yet the process of its creation is reviving and uplifting. Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned from Qiuyi was when she told me, “I cannot imagine what Sciences Po would be like without the piano room. The piano room is the only purely artistic place on campus, physically. Firstly, it’s open to the public, so everybody can enter. Most of the time, you can see that someone, or a group, is playing inside, and people would hear something like the piano, or singing from outside, so it’s kind of connecting the person inside and outside. And secondly, I knew a lot of people while I was playing the piano — they entered, and we talked and sort of got to know each other. I feel like it’s a socializing place, but more importantly, a place for people with common interests.” Lastly, Qiuyi gave me some advice which can be applied to all young adults: “For myself, the most anxiety comes from being too realistic, so I think art is an important tool for us to shift from realistic to idealistic. A person is always balanced between these two states, and I feel like art is one major component of the idealistic part. I think Sciences Po is, to some extent, quite like LSE where most people would be considered utilitarian, but when they do art, you’ll see them as quite different.” Furthermore, Qiuyi shared, “Our age is a key stage for finding your true self. I know a lot of people getting mental health advice from professionals and you know that art is like a tool that they give you a lot when they do the consultation. Art is an expressive tool for a lot of things that you can’t express. If you don’t know what you’re going to do in the future, just take some time in front of the desk and do one or two hours of meditation and just randomly draw something, even if you’re not a professional artist, or haven’t learned to systematically draw, this is perfect quality time for you to be with yourself and actually be producing something solid. That can be helpful. I think art is a medium for everything in the world. Even for politics, you have exhibitions, you have lectures, you have powerpoints, so art is like a carrier of a lot of things in the world that can actually play a role of spreading everything to reach a vast population. If you are interested in music and art you can go to the cinema, to see movies, or to listen to orchestras or musicals, operas and art exhibitions, museums. For 0.1 seconds, you notice, ‘hey, there really is something I want to do my whole life.’ It’s not necessarily art but what art carries: those themes or even a page of introduction on the brochure of the artistic event you attend. It can be inspiring for people to walk out of their own comfort zone and look at other worlds as well, and suddenly you’ll find what you want to do for your future.” The therapeutic impacts of art cannot be expressed in words: we can help our understanding of our own identity and that of others. As an artist, Qiuyi has learned that “identity is not something someone can give you; it’s not about defining yourself, but to construct an image of yourself. So this music, this art, all the things I did, are not to define myself but to describe myself and to record. Art is like a piece of my time. So when I look back, I want to still see a vivid picture of myself right now, right here with this person. What was I like in the past? I want to keep this fresh, just like you do your food with a container in the fridge. I want to keep that feeling for as long as possible, and that’s why I keep writing diaries and recording my dreams. Concerning identity, you’ll see that you treat other people differently. All you know about a person is your own perspective. And I myself don’t know how to describe myself. It’s an interesting thing to do when you explore yourself because there’s always something that you haven’t noticed yet. People say their whole life is a journey that you negotiate with yourself, that you live with yourself, that you adapt yourself to. I feel as though that’s quite true because no one can accompany us forever, it’s just us with us. All I have is me and my art.” Attached below are some of her songs and short stories: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1a14y1h7Xq/?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=b88da2a79b9af4ab93bc362e39f20c3c https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Jg411D7f6/?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=b88da2a79b9af4ab93bc362e39f20c3c https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Sa411A7ri/?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=b88da2a79b9af4ab93bc362e39f20c3c page 23 of Edition N°1 , 2022 - 2023 by Le Zadig - Issuu

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 Sciences Po Students Protest UN Climate Change Conference By Cameron Sterling October 31, 2021 The UN Climate Change Conference 2021 (COP26) is a summit intended to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and it is set to convene in Glasgow from October 31 through November 12. There, a mix of world leaders, government representatives, negotiators, businesses, civil society organizations, and private citizens will meet to set plans to limit global warming to 1.5oC (United Nations). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year is the first in two that a conference of this nature will take place. Stakes are especially high due to the current onslaught of climate-related disasters such as flooding in Europe and Southeast Asia, drought in East Africa, and wildfires in the United States, Turkey, and Australia. While the issue feels temporally relevant, there is a matter of urgency as well. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states, if nations exceed 1.5oC or more, there will be dramatic increases in heatwaves, intense storms, flooding, and losses of agricultural lands. To avoid this, nations will need to cut emissions by 7.6% every year until 2030 (UNFCC). There are few nations currently on track to meet this goal. The EU is behind on its effort to meet it and has only cut emissions by 55 percent of 1990 levels, with estimates that at its current pace, it will miss the mark by nearly 21 years (Euronews). To remediate this issue, COP26 hopes to provide the infrastructure for nations to come to agreements on emission cuts. This year is the first of which will involve the ‘ratchet’ mechanism, through which countries are supposed to readjust their climate goals, or Nationally Determined Contributions, according to the most recent advances in climate science. The conference also hopes to mobilise $100 billion in climate finance to aid developing nations, finalize the Paris Agreement Rulebook, and increase collaboration with businesses and civil society. Though COP has ambitious goals, many remain skeptical about its efficacy to truly reduce emissions and seek climate justice. 1A student Bianca Carrera says that she plans to attend this year’s COP, but has low expectations for its resolutions. On the subject of the prior Madrid COP, Carrera recounts that when she entered the Green Zone, or the area open to the public, “there was not any real action there. Not any participative initiative; they asked the youth to make ourselves heard, but it was kind of upsetting. Besides, the companies that were there were gas companies, so it was kind of greenwashing.” Carrera also intends to participate in public demonstrations organized by the Extinction Rebellion, an activist organization in Glasgow. The organization does not believe that the process of COP26 will make any substantial change, and plans to accuse leaders of crimes against humanity for what they call “legalized corruption and systemic failure.” On the importance of these demonstrations, Carerra says that she wants to make the youth voice heard. Though there have been an increasing number of young people and activists invited into the Blue Zone, where negotiations take place, “the suggestions that the activists have proposed have not really been taken into account. Even if we don’t have the power to make decisions, we have the power to influence how the COP is perceived...we know that they are not going to listen to us, so we take the initiative to disrupt their event.” Other SciencesPo Students, such as 2A Johanna Grabert, emphasized the importance of protest in Menton. Grabert identifies two reasons for protest on our campus. She first put forth that “we cannot remain silent as a political campus and a campus with political privileges...we must address local institutions and force them to acknowledge their responsibilities and capacities to address the issue.” Grabert also asserted that Menton students have the ability to take part in a regional movement. “Acting in Menton is crucial because the causes and expressions of the crisis are generated locally. It’s also important to create and strengthen alliances. We want to use the COP26 as momentum to invigorate climate protest in the region which lacks any form of it,” she said. Grabert, along with other members of Environnementon and student environmentalists, hopes to organize a demonstration in the coming month in response to COP26, and she is collaborating with regional groups including Extinction Rebellion Alpes-Maritimes, Youth for Climate Nice, and Fridays for Future groups in Italy. Hopefully, this demonstration will stimulate a debate on campus and contribute to a larger regional movement. In the long term, Grabert seeks to plan a large protest by March 24, the next global climate strike.

< Back Le néolibéralisme à la française Eloïse Franzmann October 21, 2025 «La France est un enfer fiscal.» Cette expression fréquemment reprise dans certains médias appuie la critique d’un État où les charges et impôts étoufferaient l’initiative privée. Derrière cette formule se devine le cœur du discours néolibéral : réduire les fonctions sociales de l'État pour laisser libre cours au fonctionnement ‘naturel’ du marché. Le néolibéralisme désigne un ensemble de doctrines politiques dont le but est l’optimisation des mécanismes du marché. Ses applications concrètes en matière de politique économique se traduisent bien souvent par des privatisations à outrance, des mesures de dérégulation et la primauté d’une orientation économique privilégiant l’offre (le soutien aux entreprises) au détriment de la demande (le soutien aux ménages). Fondé sur diverses croyances et principes, le courant néolibéral postule que le marché libre, affranchi de toute entrave, tend naturellement à s’autoréguler et à servir l’intérêt général. En revanche, l’intervention de l’Etat sur le marché diminuerait sa performance. Dans cette logique, tout individu est considéré comme un agent rationnel, agissant en fonction de ses intérêts propres et entièrement responsable de ses réussites et échecs. La recherche illimitée du profit n’est non pas vue comme un défaut, mais bien comme un moteur de prospérité. Enfin, selon la théorie dite du ruissellement, l’enrichissement des plus riches profite à l’ensemble de la société, y compris aux plus défavorisés. C’est l’ensemble de ces quelques principes idéologiques qui mènent le sociologue Pierre Bourdieu à affirmer que « l’utopie néolibérale tend à s’incarner dans la réalité d’une sorte de machine infernale.» Pour lui, le néolibéralisme n’est autre qu’un « programme méthodique de destruction des collectifs.» De fait, le rôle de l’Etat s’en trouve atrophié, réduit à ses deux missions régaliennes : assurer la sécurité extérieure et intérieure d’une part, et garantir le fonctionnement du cadre légal (notamment s’assurer du respect du droit de propriété) d’autre part. Puisque le néolibéralisme repose sur la croyance que tout interventionnisme fausse les mécanismes ‘naturels’ du marché, les politiques sociales—fondées sur la redistribution, la régulation ou la protection—sont perçues comme contre-productives. En conséquence, l'État tend à se désengager de ses fonctions de solidarité pour se configurer en État pénal, dont la mission principale devient le maintien de l’ordre économique à travers la sanction des déviances qui le menacent, les atteintes à la propriété au premier plan. Cette reconfiguration du rôle étatique contribue à l’augmentation de la précarité et à des inégalités grandissantes, affaiblissant alors la cohésion sociale. Le courant néolibéral gagne en influence et peut désormais être appréhendé une « hégémonie culturelle » . Théorisée par Gramsci, l’ « hégémonie culturelle » désigne le processus selon lequel une idée, infuse dans la société civile en passant par l’école, les think tanks, les médias et s’impose peu à peu comme idéologie dominante. Devenue l’idéologie largement dominante au début du XXI ème siècle, le programme néolibéral est appliqué massivement en Occident depuis le tournant des années 1970 sous l’impulsion du Royaume-Uni de Margaret Thatcher, des Etats-Unis de Ronald Reagan et en France à partir du ‘tournant de la rigueur’ de 1983 sous François Mitterrand. Pourtant, l’image de la France comme une exception survit dans l’imaginaire collectif. L’identité politique et sociale française s’est forgée autour d’un modèle d’État social, dont la Sécurité sociale demeure l’un des symboles les plus forts. Cet attachement s’est manifesté lors des grandes grèves de 1995 contre le Plan Juppé qui visait à réformer l’État-providence. Ces représentations collectives soulèvent donc de multiples interrogations : comment l’attachement de la France à son modèle social et à ses valeurs républicaines d’égalité pourrait-il composer avec avec les logiques néolibérales ? Kevin Brookes, docteur en science politique et enseignant-chercheur à Sciences Po Grenoble, s’est attaché à montrer la singularité de la trajectoire française de 1974 à 2012 et sa résistance—certes partielle mais réelle—au modèle néolibéral, en comparaison à ses États voisins européens. Si l’auteur concède qu’il y a eu un certain nombre de mesures économiques allant dans le sens d’une percée néolibérale, la culture politique empêche un réel basculement idéologique. Selon Brookes, l’opinion publique reste méfiante vis-à-vis du marché et attachée à l’idée d’un État-providence tandis que les pouvoirs publics n’ont jamais assumé un discours résolument néolibéral. Il ajoute que la France se distingue des autres pays européens de part l’augmentation des dépenses publiques et de ses politiques sociales. L’Etat français demeurant particulièrement interventionniste, symboliserait l’échec même du néolibéralisme. Si la France n’a pas connu de tournant néolibéral aussi marqué que d’autres pays, elle n’en suit pas moins la même trajectoire. Il est d’usage de considérer 1983 et 2012 comme des étapes charnières de la transformation néolibérale du capitalisme français. En 1983, sous la présidence de François Mitterrand, le 1 er gouvernement de gauche de la V ème République opte pour une réorientation de sa politique économique vers une politique de l’offre, avec comme priorité le soutien aux entreprises. Ce ‘tournant de la rigueur’ se traduit par une désindexation des salaires sur les prix—rompant ainsi la dynamique d’augmentation des salaires face à l’inflation,—une réduction des dépenses publiques et le début d’une libéralisation financière et bancaire. En 2012, François Hollande semble suivre les traces de son prédécesseur et engager une politique économique ‘probusiness.’ À nouveau, une politique de l’offre est mise en place, la priorité est donnée à la compétitivité et à l’investissement privé aux dépens d’une redistribution accrue. Sous la présidence d’Emmanuel Macron, l’appropriation française du néolibéralisme s’est largement accélérée. C’est au gré des politiques économiques adoptées depuis 2017 que le président français tend à réaliser les promesses de l’utopie néolibérale : augmentation de la marge de manœuvre des entreprises, réduction de la fiscalité pesant sur le capital et flexibilisation accrue du marché du travail. Sur le plan fiscal, la suppression de l’Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune (ISF) remplacée par l’Impôt sur la Fortune Immobilière (IFI) constitue une rupture aussi bien budgétaire qu’idéologique. Alors que les rentrées fiscales perçues par l’ISF en 2017 s’élèvent à 4,2 milliards d’euros, celles perçues par l’IFI l’année suivante ne dépassent pas 1,3 milliard d’euros. Cette politique fiscale met en œuvre la théorie du ruissellement. En allégeant l’imposition des plus riches, l’Etat espère stimuler l’investissement privé, supposé bénéficier à l’économie dans son ensemble. La fiscalité se met ainsi au service du capital, reléguant la redistribution au second plan.Dans cette logique, le président a significativement réduit les cotisations sociales, supprimant notamment les contributions chômage et maladie afin de renforcer la compétitivité des entreprises. Par exemple, les ordonnances de septembre 2017 ont largement assoupli les conditions de licenciements. Si cette flexibilisation du marché du travail profite aux entreprises, elle est également responsable de l’accroissement de la précarité des salariés et de la fragilité croissante des protections collectives. De même, la loi Pacte de 2019 a ouvert la voie à une série de nouvelles privatisations. De manière implicite, le rôle économique de l'État se rétracte au profit d’un marché plus autonome, supposé s’autoréguler. Comme toile de fond pour l’ensemble de ces mesures économiques, les principes néolibéraux reviennent : le rôle de l’État est réduit au strict minimum, la compétitivité des entreprises est maximisée et le marché devient le principal régulateur de la société. De plus, le recul de l'État social s’observe dans l’introduction progressive de mécanismes de responsabilisation individuelle au sein même de la protection sociale. Le glissement idéologique s'opère alors à travers des mesures qui paraissent pourtant des plus insignifiantes. À cet égard, la réforme du Revenu de Solidarité Active (RSA) de janvier 2025 , dont le versement est désormais conditionnée à 15 heures d’activité hebdomadaire témoigne d’une certaine reconfiguration du champ de la protection sociale. Le RSA en devenant un soutien sous condition d’activités hebdomadaires, responsabilise les individus. Alors que Robert Castel dans L’insécurité sociale démontre que le cœur de l’Etat social est de sécuriser les existences individuelles en rompant avec l’idée que chacun serait l’unique responsable de sa condition, une telle réforme porte un coup frontal à ces principes. Implicitement, la réforme du RSA renvoie à une idée simple: bénéficier d’une aide sociale devient davantage un privilège conditionnel plutôt qu’un droit social fondamental. À travers ce type de mesure, c’est l’Etat-providence qui s’affaiblit. Le néolibéralisme, en donnant la priorité à la compétition et à l’autonomie individuelle, favorise la destruction des collectifs et la création d’un individualisme excessif. L’Etat se subordonne aux logiques du marché, au détriment de l’application de politiques davantage conformes à la volonté majoritaire. Face à la désagrégation du collectif, à la priorité donnée au marché, et à un individualisme exacerbé, la démocratie est-elle vouée à s’évanouir ? Photo Source: Julian Mason, Flickr

< Back The Political Assassination of Marielle Franco By Pedro Meerbaum April 30, 2024 On March 14, 2018, after leaving a meeting in the center of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, city councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver were brutally shot by 13 bullets. The following day, the head of Rio's civil police, Rivaldo Barbosa, visited the family of the victim. He promised them the investigation would be their priority and calmed the distressed family with hopes of justice. Six years later, Barbosa was arrested under the suspicion of being one of the three individuals behind Marielle's murder. Marielle Franco was a prominent name in the political scene of Rio. A left-wing politician raised in a favela (a specific type of Brazilian slums) and acting as one of the few black queer politicians; her image was antagonistic to the waves of conservatism that would elect Bolsonaro a few months after her assassination. She was an active advocate for human rights, with a particular focus on the work of militias in Rio and their violent administration over the city's periphery. Before her assassination, Marielle had been working towards stopping the illegal seizing of land in Rio's west side for speculation and para-governmental authority over the neighborhood. The investigations were carried out for years, hitting the Brazilian headlines often with small findings, questionable plea bargains, and occasionally essential advancements to the case. It was only in March 2019 that two former police officers were arrested and convicted of being the hitmen. It was still not clear, however, who had been behind this operation. For the years that followed, a question lingered that tainted Bolsonaro's administration: Who ordered the killing of Marielle? The question was present not only in official government discussions and protests but also in art and graffiti throughout all the main streets of Brazilian cities. The image of Marielle became a figure of opposition to Bolsonaro's government and an overt depiction of how militias in Rio had obtained a monopoly over crucial administrative features. In 2020, impeached governor Wilson Witzel admitted to having intervened in the investigation of Marielle's death. Moreover, the recent arrest of Rivaldo Barbosa, chief of Rio's civil police in 2018, rejects the idea once put forward by Brazilian media outlets that her assassination was a perfect crime – rather, it exposes to the public that it was an investigation pampered with corruption at all times. Alongside Barbosa, brothers Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão were also convicted of ordering the assassination of Marielle. The Brazão family is an established political family in Rio, receiving most of its support from voters in the highly-populated west side of the city. According to investigations, Barbosa, in a scheme with the brothers, would have promised immunity to the architects of the crime. The same investigations have also pointed to a robust relationship between the family and the illegal subdivision of land in the area. The Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski recently stated, "She was opposed precisely to this group that, in the Rio City Council, wanted to regularize land to use it for commercial purposes, while the councilwoman's group wanted to use this land for social purposes, popular housing purposes." Albeit the confinement of the masterminds of the crime, justice seems far from being reached. Recently, Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, was present at a candidacy pre-launching event for a member of the Brazão family. Governors and politicians have praised and upheld the same militia political families that have long brought havoc to Rio's periphery. According to an investigation by Insight Crime , one of Rio's most prominent militias, Escritório do Crime, is composed mainly of former and serving police officers. So, it does not come as a surprise that this precise militia was involved in the murder of Marielle, nor that the bullet used in her assassination had been registered under federal property to the military police. Attempts to tackle the militia question in Rio have been beyond unsuccessful. Paramilitias are now long established in governmental institutions and have acted as a quasi-governmental force in Rio's periphery for decades. The political assassination of Marielle does not exist in a vacuum; it stands alongside numerous other victims of violence and repression. Past efforts to combat the issue have been just as tragic – Temer's militarization of Rio in 2018 cultivated an environment of violence that led to Marielle's assassination, and direct military operations in slums have caused an outrageous number of civil casualties (namely the Jacerizinho slaughter of 2021 ). While dealing with the issue of militias in Rio seems inconceivable, it is nonetheless necessary. Political voices like Marielle are crucial in confronting the presence of militia groups in governmental institutions and serving as representatives to those who have fallen victim to the mundane violence present in Rio's most impoverished neighborhoods. In the words of Marielle herself "How many more will have to die for this war against the poor to be over?" P hoto by Mídia Ninja/Flickr Creative Commons License.

Eastern Europe is often viewed as an exotic, mystical land by those who have neither lived there nor visited the region. < Back The Phenomenon of the Slavic Girl Winter By Nadia Taylor Sol for European Society January 31, 2024 Eastern Europe is often viewed as an exotic, mystical land by those who have neither lived there nor visited the region. The ideas of the brutalist buildings, post-communist memorials and cold, sometimes rude people, seem to be the standard perception people have in their minds when any European country behind the former Iron Curtain is mentioned. While these stereotypes might already ignite some uncomfortable conversations and can easily make any Eastern European start a quick historical-cultural crash course explaining the differences between our countries, I now would rather focus on the often-overlooked harms and dangers of one particular issue: the fetishization of Eastern European women and the standardized image created of them. While Eastern Europe is an extremely diverse region with a vast range of cultural and physical differences between the population, the media fails to do it justice by highlighting Soviet heritage and painting them solely as a political mass of blonde and blue eyed people. This indifference towards distinguishing one nation from another serves as perfect soil for creating the image of the typical Eastern European woman. The idea of a tall, blonde, timid housewife with the perfect beauty of a Barbie-doll, mixed with the image of a fur-wearing gold digger has been circulating in the media for decades. More importantly it is currently experiencing its renaissance thanks to freshly popularized TikTok and Instagram trends. Looking at the videos of people glamorizing the so-called “Slavic girl winter” and decreasing the multiple cultures the ethnicity encompasses to the modern mob-wife aesthetic, with fur coats, hats and expensive jewelry, made me consider how harmful this portrayal is. Especially since the whole stereotype comes from historic roots that are based on the fact that most people, especially women, could not afford to look the way the trend tells us they do. The aesthetic of the trend is the image of women who were either born or married into families and relationships with men that have either gained their wealth through living off the general public or engaging in crime. Just before explaining the problems with the trends, I shall state that there is no problem with people finding the women of the region beautiful or complimenting them for their efforts to look “perfect.” The negatives become more visible when we understand the traumatic past that has led to the creation of this image and the dangerous future these often backhanded compliments hold. The phenomenon itself can be closely linked to the fall of the Soviet Union and the socioeconomic shifts the post-Soviet states and the countries of the Soviet bloc have experienced. The 90s brought poverty and, especially for women, a drastic change in people’s status within the society. During the Soviet years, every adult was obliged by the law to work, meaning women were not tied to their husbands or male guardians to provide for themselves and their families. The collapse of the Union brought both unemployment and an influx of Western, more conventional beauty and patriarchal media, collaboratively resulting in women creating a new approach to wealth and survival. The idea that women have to be beautiful to be appealing to strong and successful men, who were often their only chance to get over the poverty line, became a widespread concept in society. The approach created an ever-lasting and strong duality between the expectations posed towards women and men. While men should be strong, wealthy and successful to be able to provide for their wives, women have to be easy on the eyes and should be ready to serve their men in any way they can. The international image of the Slavic and Eastern European sex workers can also be closely tied to the above-mentioned logic. When the Soviet Union fell, people tried to leave to the West in a hope of starting a new life. We do not have to look much further to understand the unfortunate turnout of events many women had to go through to be able to support themselves in a new, foreign society far from home. With no other way out of poverty many turned to sex work and the jump in the number of Eastern European women in the industry created a new, fetishized image in the minds of many. Women from the region are now viewed as either parts of the sex work industry or overly attainable in exchange for a high-value life and money. And thus, the image of the expensive-looking gold digger was created. An image that we still struggle to distance ourselves from. These stereotypes, while clearly holding an ugly mirror towards the reality of the history of the post-communist Eastern bloc pose dangers in the modern day as well. First, they discredit any attempt by regional feminist movements or just women in general to make people focus on anything but their appearance. One of the greatest examples of this is how online communities reacted to images of Ukrainian women fighting for their country. While some did praise them for their strength and bravery, and made an effort to educate themselves about the ongoing invasion, others decided to stick to the fetishization of Ukrainian women – particularly unacceptable during times of war, when violence against women is used to assert power – compounding the harassment women have to experience both in the virtual and real spheres of their lives. The second most prominent result of these widespread stereotypes is the high number of women from the region becoming victims of human trafficking. It is not unusual for people coming from lower income households to strive to leave their hometowns or countries in the hopes of a better future. While doing so they often fall victim to targeted advertisements, focused on women with certain physical traits. Both the online distributed easy to access work or study opportunities and the seemingly helpful people at the airports can pose grave dangers, as they can end up being linked to organized human trafficking with a special focus on women from the region. The already existing stereotypes and the sometimes-re-emerging fascination with the imagined submissive nature of Eastern European women, a good example of which can be the leaked messages of Andrew Tate and his claims on preferring women from the region, escalate the growth of the market and make women even more vulnerable to the dangers of human trafficking. Currently, the trend of the Slavic girl winter, when not used by members of the ethnicity to regain control over certain elements of their own culture, does nothing more than accelerate an already existing prejudice against Slavic and Eastern European women. It pokes holes into the efforts of reducing discrimination and elevating them to a higher level in the public eye than gold diggers and submissive housewives. As with every other fetishized ethnicity, instead of playing into the general stereotype, the public should rather educate themselves about the diverse and captivating histories and cultures of the region, make efforts to celebrate those representatives of the Eastern European women who deserve the most praise and be aware of the harm generalization brings about.

While many might still view the opposition to the Super League as being excessive, it is important to understand that these athletic communities seek to maintain the integrity of what is fundamentally a game that unites and empowers people, no matter their class, race, religion, sexuality, disability. < Back European Super Greed: The Rapid Rise and Spectacular Fall of the European Super League By Hugo Lagergren October 30, 2021 Football plays a unique role in Europe, and specifically in the UK. It breaks down the class barriers that often come between the working class and the middle class, and it unites them behind a common cause. The UK Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, described this phenomenon in a speech to the House of Commons in which he criticized the Super League: “Football clubs aren’t just businesses; they define communities across the country.” For 56 hours, however, these communities united beyond even the geographical divides that usually act as barriers, and united against the financial giants that were at the helm of this project. This David v. Goliath moment is the brief story of how these communities managed to topple the commercial master plan of a handful of greedy European bureaucrats. Reports began to break of a rumored “breakaway” European Super League during a match between Arsenal and Fulham on Sunday the 18 of April. Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal Football Club, was asked about the rumors after the game. His lack of knowledge or involvement was apparent from his double take after the project was mentioned. This interaction is a perfect example of the disconnect that was in place prior to the project between the owners of these clubs, and the footballing communities that they preside over. The suggested project involved 12 clubs breaking away from their respective national and international competitions and forming a new, exclusive championship. It is precisely this idea of exclusivity that was a central reason for the project’s unpopularity. Domestic championships are a tier-based system. They reward clubs for merit and punish them for inadequacy through promotion and relegation between championships. Despite the financial disparity that exists between clubs, this gives them all the opportunity to challenge “the Big Six” (Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham & Arsenal); these teams being the six wealthiest in the UK (prior to the recent takeover of Newcastle United by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia). An example of this type of success story is when Leicester City F.C. went from playing in the Championship, the second division of English football, to winning the Premier League in the space of three years. While this type of event occurs less and less due to the increasing wealth gap between clubs, the important thing is that it remains a possibility, despite its unlikeliness. This possibility of challenging the bigger teams and winning incentivizes fans of smaller clubs to get back behind their teams in a more active manner. This includes attending football games and buying club merchandise, which provide the club with active moral and financial support. An exclusive championship without the possibility of failure through regulation would also motivate players less as they would be guaranteed the same quality of football games each year. This demotivation would become even more pronounced as a breakaway league would remove the financial bonuses that are often included within each players’ contracts which reward exceptional individual performance, in the context of high team performance. The argument of those driving the project, notably Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid C.F., is that the Super League will “save football” through the millions of euros it would receive in television and sponsorship revenue. In addition to this, the project would include the 12 most successful teams in Europe in order to create a league with a high level of skill, thus making it an attractive concept for football fans world-wide. However, both arguments were unsatisfactory and, more importantly, unconvincing in the eyes of supporters across the globe, and particularly in Britain. Firstly, the poor planning on behalf of the business titans behind the project manifested the disconnect that exists between owners and fans. The prioritization of money over supporters in an attempt to reinvigorate the football economy reflects a complete misreading of the footballing community, as the leaders of the project rapidly came to understand following many fan-led protests across the country. While the argument of creating a league that plays more attractive football may appear to hold more weight, fans argued instead that such a project would, in actual fact, render football more boring and less attractive for fans. They argued that the existing international competition, the UEFA Champions League, was special because it is infrequent. The fact that matches from this competition were rare during the football season and often brought similarly successful European teams in contact created a certain aura and hype around the competition, which fans argued would disappear with the creation of the Super League, as it would sensitize them to elite-tier football. It is interesting to consider such an argument from a scientific perspective as well, to better comprehend this idea of sensitization, as it holds some scientific weight. The hypothalamus, a section of the brain responsible for maintaining constant certain aspects of the body, such as heart rate, blood pressure and hormone levels, releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine to amplify a person’s feeling of pleasure during any kind of enjoyable activity. When continued amounts of dopamine are injected into one’s system, it causes the person to become resistant to the effects of dopamine, and thus receive less pleasure from the same amount of dopamine. This is what many football fans think could happen as a result of the creation of a Super League. As well as the heavy opposition from the army of English supporters, there was also significant political pressure from leading European politicians, including Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron, which led to the project’s suspension. The project’s clear unpopularity provided governments with the opportunity to side with fans and gain favor among voters and none made more use of this opportunity than Boris Johnson, who, as Prime Minister of a stagnating economy and fragile, post-Brexit union, needed a story to divert attention from Britain’s domestic issues. As a European football official said, “not all politicians are football fans, but every politician is aware that every fan is a voter.” The pressure created by the possibility of political intervention was pivotal. However, this was only made possible by the strength of the popular revolt against the project. This debacle has highlighted the problems of greed and elitism that currently plague the football industry and has raised important questions as to how club ownership should be structured. Many have referenced the German 50+1 structure which prevents any one body being the majority stakeholder in a club by placing 51% of the club’s ownership in the hands of fans. Chief reporter Tobi Altschaeffi of the German sports newspaper SportBild stated that it is precisely this ownership structure that creates such a strong community surrounding the club, as it involves fans in a more active manner. Boris Johnson went as far as to announce a “root-and-branch investigation into the governance of football and the role of fans in that governance.” Oliver Dowden went on to mention the governance structure that German clubs employ as a possible influence, if there were to be a restructuring of Premier League club ownership. One would hope that government intervention is not necessary. However, as has been the case time and time again, owners have consistently shown a lack of empathy with their club’s players and supporters and the wider footballing community, and have chosen instead to put their own monetary gain first. While this does create a cause for concern, the speed at which the project was reversed due to public outcry and political pressure should also give football fans confidence that there is a strong enough community to keep these billionaire owners and business titans in check. While many might still view the opposition to the Super League as being excessive, it is important to understand that these communities only seek to maintain the integrity of what is fundamentally a game that unites and empowers people, no matter their class, race, religion, sexuality, disability or any other factor which divides us.

Sports Recap – April 2022 < Back Sports Recap: April By Hugo Lagergren April 29, 2022 Football As the season reaches its climax, the battle between Liverpool and Manchester City for domestic and European glory is showing no sign of letting up. In their second meeting of the Premier League season, the two teams played out an exhilarating 2-2 draw, in what was described by many as the game of the season. One week later, however, Liverpool overcame Pep Guardiola’s side with a dominant first half display to reach their first FA Cup final under Jurgen Klopp. This keeps its hopes of completing a historic quadruple alive. The Champions League quarter-finals saw some serious upsets, as Villareal managed to eliminate favorite Bayern Munich with a late goal from Samuel Chukwueze, setting up a semi-final against Liverpool. Karim Benzema maintained his brilliant form by eliminating the defending champions, Chelsea, with a devastating hat-trick, sending Real Madrid through. Real Madrid will play Man City, as Pep tries to win the only trophy that has eluded him during his time at City. The Europa League, UEFA’s second tier competition, also produced a number of shock results. The biggest was Eintracht Frankfurt’s defeat of Barcelona at the Camp Nou. West Ham United and Red Bull Leipzig also won their respective quarter-finals. Possibly the biggest surprise of the competition was Glasgow’s Rangers reaching the semi-finals of a European tournament. This is the first time a Scottish side has reached the last four since 2008. In the inaugural season of the Europa Conference League, Europe’s tertiary club football competition, Olympique de Marseille, has managed to reach the semi-finals, where it will play Dutch side Feyenoord. Leicester City defeated PSV to set up a semi-final against Mourinho’s struggling AS Roma. With 29 out of the 32 teams having already qualified for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, FIFA completed the draw of the group stages, classifying the 32 possible contenders into 8 groups. This decides the paths each team must take if they are to reach the World Cup final. Following a poor display of form, OGC Nice dropped out of contention for the Champions League, despite reaching the final of the French Cup. This has undoubtedly dampened the mood on the Côte D’Azur, as Nice look likely to miss out on the top-tier of European football, once again. With six games left in the season, none of which are against teams currently in the top five, Nice are looking to reverse its poor form by taking the maximum number of points possible whilst also hoping that the teams above them drop points. With only four games remaining, and just one point separating Chelsea and Arsenal, the tension is rising in the Women’s Super League, as Arsenal attempts to steal the title off Chelsea. Defending champions Chelsea, who have held the title for two years running now, will be without star striker Fran Kirby for the rest of the season. Her absence, according to Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, can be attributed to a case of “fatigue.” In the Women’s FA Cup, Chelsea beat rivals Arsenal comfortably to reach the final, where they will play Man City at Wembley. On March 22, FC Barcelona announced a four-year partnership with UNHCR. Audiences will see the UN Refugee Agency’s logo appear on the back of the Barcelona kit. Moreover, the Barcelona Foundation pledged to supply UNHCR with an annual €400,000 cash contribution and an additional annual €100,000 worth of sports equipment and technical expertise. Barcelona has a history of philanthropic partnerships with the UN – collaborating with the intergovernmental organization for unconventional kit sponsorships. Many will remember the iconic Barcelona kits with the UNICEF logo displayed on the front, which the team used from 2006 to 2010. Formula 1 Ferrari continued its dominant form by clinching a double podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix behind Max Verstappen (Leclerc 2nd, Sainz 3rd). They earned their second win of the season at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, where Leclerc stormed to his fourth career win. Max Verstappen retired with engine issues in Melbourne for the second time this season, exacerbating worries surrounding Red Bull’s reliability. Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, labelled the issue “desperately frustrating,” as Red Bull struggles to keep up with the pace of the Ferraris. However, Red Bull managed to reestablish themselves at Imola, where they achieved their first one two finish since Malaysia 2016, with Max Verstappen taking the victory. Tennis Stephan Tsitsipas beat Davidovich Fokina to win his second Monte Carlo title in a row. The Greek tennis player took victory in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6, despite looking slightly tense during the tie breaker of the second set. The world number five described himself “very proud” as he won his first trophy of the season, a feat he hopes will kickstart his 2022 campaign. Golf On April 10, American golfer, Scottie Scheffler won his first green jacket by championing the 86th PGA Masters tournament, holding off late pushes from Cameron Smith and Rory McIlroy. Last year, Scheffler finished 18th and his highest finish at any previous major was fourth place. However, much of the golfing world’s attention was on Tiger Woods. Woods made a surprising return following a serious car crash in February 2021, during which he sustained several serious leg injuries. American Sports The NBA playoffs are now underway, with the Phoenix Suns as the favorite to win this year. Last year’s champions, the Milwaukee Bucks will be looking to defend their title. However, the Suns have put up a dominant display during the regular season by setting a franchise record for the most wins in a single season. The NHL approaches the Stanley Cup playoffs with many teams filling playoff spots, including the New York Rangers who have qualified for a place in the playoffs for the first time in five years. Last year’s finalist, the Montreal Canadians, have struggled and are currently bottom of the Atlantic Division, with qualification for the playoffs far out of reach.

< Back L'Usine Pedro Meerbaum The historical landscape of Menton seemed immutable. Nowhere in townscapes from the midday Basilique ring of bells can one walk by the beach without being struck by the beauty of the old town with its 16th-century architecture. Even in its new town, Menton feels like a bubble wherein modernity is far-reaching. Yet, the new Cap D’ail style beach clubs and current constructions on the beachfront point to a new direction, one where Menton slowly tries to associate itself with the modern and luxurious audience of Monaco and St Tropez. Amidst Menton's path to total commodification, a little store is at the intersection of Rue de Brea and the Prom. Du Val de Menton protects the key to the authentic Côte d’Azur charm. Located at 3 Rue de Général Gallienie is one of Menton's most precious boutiques, L’Usine . Based on an old factory, as its name suggests, L’Usine is one of Menton's biggest antique stores. Amid its multiple floors, rooms, and charming garden, the family-owned business has cultivated a collection of regional items, from home decor to jewelry, that exist as an archive of a Côte d’Azur that is long lost. One does not need pictures to understand the originality and authenticity of life in the region 40 years ago; the various sofas, cutlery and collectibles of L’Usine tell the story of the region. They put into perspective how much this historical town has shifted. Even its wide door does not do justice to the magnitude of the store. Its side doors and stairs are dizzying and dazzling. One could spend hours going through the collection of objects on the various floors, observing from the smallest pins to the largest human-sized dolls. The owner, Allo, allowed us to carry out an interview with him. He has owned the business for 25 years with his wife, Michelle. He calls himself a proud collector, and before opening L’Usine, he traveled around Europe to acquire different pieces. It was then, almost at the turn of the century, when the couple got the opportunity to buy the estate and open a store. In harmony with an antique store, the place had to undergo a process of renovations and cleanings before they could open it to the public. There were simply too many residues. After everything was clean, Allo told me they had to buy and fill the rooms “little by little.” I carried out the interview accompanied by journalistic partner Anna Halpern, who meticulously asked Allo if all objects were from Menton itself. He confirmed that, indeed, a good part of the objects were from Menton, and while walking through the store, one repeatedly finds posters and objects that herald our town and its beauty. He assures, though, that most objects are from the Alpes-Maritimes region. He claimed that Menton, Nice and Cannes were all cities that received a great influx of tourists and immigrants in the last few centuries, who brought with them specific objects and furniture that now are crucial pieces of his enormous collection. Allo points out that the town is changing. He is not talking about the construction of the new beaches but rather about their taste. His selling point was classical furniture, sofas, closets and grandiose cabinets from the early 20th century. Now, people want a different sort of vintage. He has sold significantly more modernist furniture, pieces from the '60s or '80s, with considerably fewer sales on early 20th-century objects. His audience has also shifted. It is not the local Mentonnaise population that offers him the biggest source of income, despite an occasional SciencesPo student looking for a poster or a lamp, but rather tourists. He estimated that 10% of his clientele is Mentonnaise, 10% is Italian, and the rest are composed of transient Americans, Germans, Scandinavians, and more recently, Australians. He is not quite sure if the change in taste is also related to the change in clientele—in his opinion the Italians had the most dramatic shift of taste, but he has shown himself flexible and ready to adapt his store to the needs of his clients. Allo offered us a store tour, pointing to particular objects that interested him: dutch barrels, 20th-century possessions and even what he called “bizarre stuff.” Anna made a point about how the things he had there were simply mesmerizing and shockingly interesting. Allo, after a quick laugh, says, “Yes, but this is what I am looking for. That is what I aim to sell. It's no easy find, but we work!” He presents objects that remind us of the diversity of the South of France beyond the coast and even elements from the neighboring Italian north and Spanish Catalonia. A conversation with the store owners has led me to become further disbelieved. How was it possible that a couple could find so many particular objects and foster such a big collection of antiquities? When asked how he sees these things, Allo quickly responds with a simple “Je me lève tôt,” “I wake up early.” Every Sunday, when the store is closed, he wakes up at 4 am and ventures throughout the region to find objects for his collection in a tireless search. “It's not easy to find this stuff,” he told me, “it is easier to buy old furniture than to find something truly interesting.” Throughout the years, scavenging his products has been the most challenging aspect of his job. “The provision,” he puts it, “is the hardest part. It's more difficult to find stuff than to sell it.” He also discusses the prices of his stuff, saying that he has to put a price that gives him a profit, and some things end up being more expensive than expected. Yet, “it is not close to being more expensive than the boutique stores in Paris,” he says. “ Those are a steal. You have to put it in perspective.” My final question was the most difficult to answer. “What is your favorite piece?” It took him just a few seconds to answer, “The big window in the showcase!” He took us outside the store to look at the said mirror. It is a grandiose piece, covered by crystals, and so mesmerizing one has to see it for themselves to understand why Allo felt so attached to it. Finally, he told us: “When I find stuff like this, I am happy.” Previous Next