The aftermath of 11 September 2001 attacks lays stress on a significant turmoil in the political life of the Saudi Kingdom and on its regional role. Since these events, the traditional relationship of the Kingdom with United States based on confidence is durably damaged. A serious decline of the hegemonic action of Saudi Arabia on the GCC states (Gulf Cooperation Council) can also be noticed. This situation forces Saudi rulers to develop a new strategic framework for regional security. It (...)  lire suite

The end of the Cold War, the Reagan Presidency and the era of President George Bush are crucial to understand the current policies. That period was characterized by Realism and favoured good relations between the United States and China. Then, Tiananmen came as a dividing point : the dramatic events of 1989 threatened the balance previously built and remain present as a trauma in many American minds. President Clinton, by his strategy of engagement, drifted from a strategic vision of China (...)  lire suite

Within the context of broadening the European Union to include ten new member States on May 1st, 2004, the European Commission has created a new cooperation framework, consisting in a neighborhood policy, with its Eastern and Southern neighbors. Initially kept from this neighborhood initiative, South Caucasus States have finally joined it as the consequence of a strategic decision made by the Council on June 14th, 2004. This decision appears to be the logical continuation of more than a (...)  lire suite

The Russian-Chechen war is far from being over ; it is relevant task oneself about the mechanisms of such a situation : why does not the intensity of this conflict decrease ? The conflict is based on the opposition between logic of power and logic of values, yet this double electric shock does not explain everything. The Russian-Chechen war echoes a matrix based on a specific representation of the relationship between space and time : on a spatial axis, the Russians and the Chechens answer to (...)  lire suite

In Central Asia, beyond tension over ethnic, gas or water disputes, low intensity conflicts against Islamic terrorists and drug traffickers are posing increasing threats to the security of the West. Thousands of weapons of mass destruction are poorly controlled in the region, giving rise to fears that terrorists will steal them. These Islamic terrorists groups are expanding, adapting and changing rapidly, joining forces and increasing their drug trafficking. Central Asia has indeed become a (...)  lire suite

A year after his 2004 election, Mikhail Saakachvili can be credited of a first very positive outcome : Georgia is engaged in a deeply reform process and is securing its switch to the West, provoking some grumpy reactions from the Kremlin. The new reformist team still face real challenges : boosting the reforms ; improving their bilateral relationship with Moscow ; resolving the internal conflicts. Pressured by Washington and Moscow (both capitals focusing on their own energetic agendas), (...)  lire suite

Since the fall of the URSS and in light of the « velvet revolution » in Georgia in autumn of 2003, Southern Caucasia (Armenia, Azerbaïdjan, Georgia) has become synonymous of geopolitical changes. With September 11th and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the post-communist transition sees the international community’s interest renewed in this economic and political crossroad. Rebuilding these three countries is in process. In all three countries, elections in 2003 saw the arrival of new (...)  lire suite

In many accounts of Pakistan, the « land of the pure » appears as a weak state, on the verge of collapse under the combined threats of organised crime and Islamist groups. A more thorough analysis of Pakistani politics and foreign policy, paying attention to the long term, reveals the severe limitations of such apocalyptic accounts of Pakistan. Pakistan is indeed exemplary of these « soft states » whose political trajectory is characterized by an organic partnership between the agents of (...)  lire suite

In October 2003, launching the first « space navigator » or Yuangyuan, represented a dramatic spatial Chinese achievement. What does this demonstration of capacity mean in a field of high technologies with a strong strategic connotation and what national and international political goals does it answer to ? Independently from the media use that can be made from programs with a high symbolical value, in order to assess the reality of achievements in the field of the outer space, one must (...)  lire suite