The shock provoked by the events on September 11^th, 2001, does not create a new world, but suggests new frames of interpretation. The world of conflicts is moving increasingly farther from the one we have learnt to deal with for the past two centuries : hence our interrogations on our own security strategies, defined for vanished hypotheses. American power dominates the world, but it is unsure whether it would or could rule it. Multi-lateralism is in a state of crisis when it certainly (...)  lire suite

Is the use of the term of « war » by the American administration, referring to the struggle against world terrorism, a judicious one, when the battle is a many-sided, long-term one, with a police, judicial, diplomatic and military character, and that it shall not be ended by an ultimate victory bulletin ? Several issues are entailed. Must adversaries be considered as warriors or criminals ? Should captives be war prisoners or illegal fighters ? Is it a particular category of « just war »? (...)  lire suite

On November 13, 2001, President Bush issued a military order pertaining to the « Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism » (66 FR 57, 833). This order authorises the use of military tribunals for the trial of persons who are suspected of participating in terrorist actions, or of lending assistance to such actions. The order aroused a strong outcry in the press, and a quite divisive controversy in the country, reflecting the general and perennial (...)  lire suite

During the Istanbul Conference held in November 1999, the OCSE adopted a new and important document : a European Security Charter. Aware that crises are a continuum from their prevention and management to reconstruction, the Organisation deals in fifty-two paragraphs with its challenges, missions and projects for the beginning of the twenty-first century for the European continent. Stating the new risks and challenges concerning security, the Istanbul Charter establishes a codification of (...)  lire suite

As the American campaign in Afghanistan puts Central Asia in the heart of the antiterrorist plan drawn up by the international community, the stability and security of those republics seem threatened by radical Islam, drug traffic and organised criminality. These threats designed by the five Centro-Asian capitals as the main causes of regional instability, find no response, either regionally or globally. If the outcome of the first ten years of independence shows the efforts made by Central (...)  lire suite

Greenland, a territory under Danish sovereignty, is obtaining more and more competence as far as foreign policy is concerned. Its political and economical ambitions, nonetheless, come up against a restricting geography ; it would be able to claim any form of independence only if it could get over its geo-economical limits. Its strategic situation, besides, attracts American attention, because Washington is planning to use the Greenland base of Thule as one of the centrepieces of the Defence (...)  lire suite