Just after September 11th, many analysts welcomed the U.S.-Russia rapprochement. Some of them even predicted that an alliance could emerge between the two countries, even though their relations suffered considerably in the 90s. Yet, many developments that have been interpreted as improvements in the relationship are in fact the result of a logic that pre-existed the terrorist attacks in the U.S. Moreover, while the « Western orientation » Vladimir Putin imprinted on his policy does not (...)  lire suite

The attacks on September 11th can definitely be coined « terrorist », yet their scale makes them singularly portentous, the evidence of a radical evolution in the ordinary modalities of terrorism. The unusual in these acts are two of their most notable characteristics : the de-contextualization of violence and the total disconnection between the end pursued and the means those responsible for the attacks have employed. This absence of a social and intellectual grounding for violence indicates (...)  lire suite

Is it possible to speak of a security globalization ? We are forced to consider that security now belongs to a new world order, where the territorial integrity of a State is a generally constructed and established norm, which provokes a pacification in inter-State relations, accompanied by a globalization of inter-State security. Nevertheless, State sovereignty is still being questioned, but through the principle of humanity now, the core of the development of new norms and new intervention (...)  lire suite

Whereas risk management and leading « chosen wars » characterized the strategic landscape in the 1990s, the classic notion of « threat » has come back to center stage since the attacks on September 11th, with, especially, the exacerbation of risk factors in the Middle East, the failure of non-proliferation policies, and the access of non-State actors to mass destruction. This new situation marks the end of the post-Cold War era and calls for decisions which include the evolution of American and (...)  lire suite

In general, terrorist actions do not appear sui generis ; most of the time, they are built on former attacks. Therefore the attacks on September 11th are not a first, but because of the large number of victims they have made. This was precisely the aim of Al Qaida, an informal club, like other Islamist groupings, organized as autonomous satellites gravitating one around the other : to result in human losses, especially American ones, rather than provoke material damage. These (...)  lire suite

The attacks on September 11th are a perfect illustration of the theses supported for ten-some years by the « new international politics » theorists. Clinging to the hypothesis of the erosion of the State-nation, they put forward the notions of « civil society », « governance », etc. In the same time, the attacks seem to be engendering a redistribution of values, a companion to the establishment of a new strategic installation, resting on strong come-back of State, security concerns, a larger (...)  lire suite