New technologies and international relations
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An economic and ecological dispute within the European Union, between Flanders and the Netherlands
AFRI 2010, VOLUME XI
par - 11 November 2010The Westerschelde estuary lies at the border between Belgium and the Netherlands; thus, it has been for several years the scene of a conflict involving economic interests, efforts to prevent the risks of flooding associated with climate change and environmental concerns. A treaty signed by both countries in 2005 foresaw that the Westerschelde be dredged to facilitate access to the port of Antwerp and that the Dutch de-polder the Duchess Hedwig polder for environmental purposes. Yet these policies are poorly accepted in the Netherlands because local populations are worried that de-poldering increase the risk of flooding, and because Rotterdam takes a dim view of developing the port of Antwerp, its long-standing rival.
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Cyber-conflicts, a geopolitical revolution?
AFRI 2010, VOLUME XI
par - 11 November 2010During the past few years, a significant number of international events (cyber-attacks against Estonia, infiltrations against European and American military networks) had put cyberspace under the limelight of the strategic stage. It is thus possible to envision cyberspace as an autonomous social world where States and non-State actors compete. At the same time; in spite of a proliferating number of works about the IT revolution and its consequences for modern armed forces, many pitfalls remain, including attack attribution, its actors’ intention and institutionalization of means dedicated to cyber-defense in the United States and in France. This bureaucratic issue has a core doctrine dimension : if cyberspace is an autonomous space, can classical dispute frameworks such as deterrence be applied ? As political and military decision-makers have not yet delivered conclusions on the matter, it is then important to structure a research agenda that may support these works.
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Protecting critical infrastructures, the primary strategic stake for the XXIst century
AFRI 2010, volume XI
par - 26 September 2010Protecting critical infrastructures has become a major security stake since September 11th, 2001. Following in the United States’ footsteps, public powers globally have reassessed their Cold-War concepts and adapted them to the necessities of the times. Defense against terrorist threats has thus become the main objective of protection policies. This text shows how France has implemented its new protection strategy for « vital » infrastructures, and reveals the action of international organizations, especially the European Union, in this field. It also emphasizes a potentially enduring conceptual trend: that States define rules and obligations and that operators bear the financial burden, lest severe sanctions be inflicted upon them.
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Introduction - NOUVELLES TECHNOLOGIES ET RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 29 July 2010Il est aujourd’hui devenu presque trivial d’affirmer que la société de l’information et ses manifestations les plus contemporaines (Internet, réseaux d’informations au sens large) constituent un facteur à part entière des relations internationales. « Colonne vertébrale de notre monde globalisé », comme l’exprimait récemment un haut responsable des Nations Unies, l’Internet suscite aujourd’hui réflexions et stratégies à la hauteur des enjeux qu’il a fait naître, enjeux proprement politiques, comme le rappelle (...) -
Mineral resources : present and future
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010The forecast mid-term decline of oil production leads one to ponder the globality of mineral production. As what concerns fossile fuels, their growing consumption and the use of coal – a great source of carbon dioxide – results in the rapid increase of greenhouse gas. Our societies’ needs for metals are constantly growing and the mining industry has increased its capacities with a strong rise in prices. Resources are not unlimited, and on the short term, the development of recycling and the exploitation of low-rating mines may respond to the reviving demand. For the intermediate term, the constant growth of raw materials should encourage highly demanding countries to act in order to secure their supply, thus to adopt regulatory forms beyond simple trade mechanisms.
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International stakes of bio-ethics and the World Summit in Paris 2008. Convergences and divergences in debates
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010The seventh World Summit of National Ethics Committees, which was held in Paris in 2008, has proved to be fruitful on two main levels. First of all, in face of the gradual development of manipulation techniques upon the elements of the human body, the international awareness of ethical stakes is getting more acute. The States are looking for common ground by bringing out some universal principles through their Ethics Committees. Secondly, even though those legal authorities manage to agree on fundamental values, they express divergences on the concrete way to implement them. Prenatal medicine and assisted reproduction reflect those discrepancies.
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Is information technology and network security a matter of concern for State(s) ?
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010Evolving towards the so-called information society raises ever more arduous problems on securing networks and information: systems and computer applications are increasingly complex and interconnected, attacks are more sophisticated and ambitious. Companies and individuals must invest more to protect their equipments and their sensitive information, while protection rules for classified information are hardly compatible with new computer architectures and applications. Endeavours need to be better coordinated at a national and a European level. France suggests an interesting model by transforming the DCSSI, Direction of the National Defence Secretariat, into the National Agency for the Information Systems Security.
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The difficult gestation of the European Forum on Internet governance
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010Considering that « the Internet has evolved into a global facility available to the public », the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) created the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2005 in order to allow « a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the policy to be followed » for international management and development of the Internet. Simultaneously, WSIS « encourage[d] the development of multi-stakeholder processes at the national, regional and international levels » for effectively contributing to its work. Whereas a large majority of countries call the ICANN model into question, the three IGFs which were held since the WSIS decision – the last one having been held at Hyderabad in December 2008 – failed to progress in making concrete proposals for ensuring an efficient multilateral governance of the Net. In addition, the official European delegation – from both the Parliament and the Council – was absent from Hyderabad following the Mumbai terrorist attacks. This absence weakened the position of the other European stakeholders attending the IGF meeting, and highlighted the imperative necessity for creating the European Forum on Internet Governance (EIGF). The article mentions the outcomes of the three global meetings, and proposes relevant ideas for putting in place this Forum and the main themes to be discussed there, which are representative of the European values and visions.
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Introduction - Nouvelles technologies et relations internationales
AFRI 2008, volume IX
par - 1 December 2009 -
« The International Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC). The interface between science and politics
AFRI 2008, volume IX
par - 23 July 2008The International Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC), which was created in 1988, works at the interface between scientific research and political decision-makers. Its role is to provide the latter with clear and reliable scientific information and to assess in a transparent and non-prescriptive manner what is relevant for these decision-makers in climatic science. The first three IPCC assessment reports (1990, 1995, 2001) have strongly influenced the decisions made during the Earth Summit in Rio (1992) and the Framework Convention on Climatic Change that ensued, then the draft Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and its enforcement in 2005. The IPCC’s fourth report, published in 2007, confirms and reinforces the conclusions made in previous reports. An intense effort for international cooperation is developing for the enforcement of a climate observation world system, an essential element for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and necessary point of support of climate changes mitigation and impact adaptation policies.