By Antonin TISSERON, Research Fellow at the Thomas More Institute | Available in French 

Alors que le Mali s’enfonce dans une crise dont il est difficile de voir le bout, le Niger apparaît relativement épargné. Mais dans une région sous haute tension, avec une montée de la violence dans le nord du Nigeria et au Soudan, une Libye dont le pouvoir central semble incapable de faire respecter son autorité sur les marges sud, ou encore une situation de crise alimentaire, l’avenir de ce pays apparaît incertain. À bien des égards en effet, le voisin oriental du Mali est dans l’œil du cyclone, accroissant l’importance des réformes engagées pour renforcer la stabilité et la cohésion d’un État fragilisé par la (...)

Text of the speech of Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Research Fellow at the Thomas More Institute, at the conference « NATO and the « enlarged Mediterranean » | Arab Spring, intervention in Libya, partnerships », organized by the Catholic University Santa Cuore of Milano (Italy), on May 3rd, 2012.

Too often, the Mediterranean is thought like a “Mare Nostrum”, and that area is the subject of various lyric discourses. However, this both unitary and restricted representation is not in phase with long-term history, world geo-economics and geopolitical dynamics. We have to think in the framework of a “greater Mediterranean space” farbeyond the shores of this basin. This “greater Mediterranean space” is made of antagonist (...)

By Jean-Sylvestre MONGRENIER, Research Fellow at the Thomas More Institute | Article published by ISPI (Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale, Milano, Italy)

In 2007, at the time of the previous presidential election, the revitalization of France’s foreign policy was one of the issues tackled by the political debates, even though it was marginally. In 2012, things are different, the nostalgia for greatness and the “souci du monde” are submerged by domestic issues. Nonetheless, Politics cannot be ignored. The diplomatic and strategic stakes are not as visible and obvious as those domestics issues but they are most important. Therefore, we shall study the share of continuity and discontinuity in France’s (...)

By Jean-Sylvestre MONGRENIER, Researche Fellow at the Thomas More Institute | Tribune N°34 | Available in French

During the past decade, a non-ideological and mercantile view of Russia has tended to prevail. In the energy field as in the relationship between Russia and its partners, the ultimate purpose was supposed to be maximal prices and the enrichment of the “capitalist bureaucrats” who run and own the country. However, the various crises that have opposed the Russian rulers to their Central and Eastern European neighbors brought to light logics of power that cannot be reduced to a sole economic interest. The rhetoric of Derjava, i.e. state and military power, has raised again most strongly. The energy resources are used (...)

By Jean-Sylvestre MONGRENIER, Researche Fellow at the Thomas More Institute | Published in Le Temps (Switzerland) | Available in French

Le conflit relatif aux ambitions nucléaires iraniennes n’en finit pas, laissant redouter que le pire n’advienne. C’est à Istanbul, le samedi 14 avril, que se tiendra le prochain round diplomatique. L’événement entre en résonance avec la volonté turque, il y a peu encore, de jouer les «honnêtes courtiers» entre l’Occident et le régime iranien, voire de se poser en puissance tierce. Las. Confrontée à un difficile environnement géopolitique, la Turquie doit consolider ses alliances à l’Ouest. Assiste-t-on à l’éternel retour du Même?

La conquête du pouvoir par (...)