Within a few months, Lebanon, often misrepresented as “the only Arab democratic state” or even as the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” has collapsed. Successively, popular demonstrations against the political class (October 2019), a banking crisis (November 2019), a health crisis (July 2020), an explosion at the port of Beirut […]
France
NATO Puzzle
No one challenged NATO rules during the Cold War except France. But in view of its excesses since 2001, each of its members (except Turkey) is thinking of getting out of it, including the United States for whom it is nevertheless indispensable. The internal report on what it should become illustrates its contradictions and the difficulty of reforming it.
France Challenges Russian Peacekeeping In Caucasus
The trilateral agreement on November 10 between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia over Nagorno-Karabakh is leading to a geopolitical struggle in the Caucasus. So long as Armenia and Azerbaijan were ferociously fighting, the great game lurked in the shade. But no sooner than the seven-week old conflict reached a climax — […]
Secularists And Islamists – The Best Enemies
The recent terrorist attacks against Christians in France – one in Nice, where an Islamist stabbed parishioners at a Catholic church, and one in Lyon, where an Orthodox priest was wounded – have aggravated a battle for secular values that was already in full swing in cyberspace. At the same […]
Deconstructing France’s Emmanuel Macron
The Modi government has earned the distinction as the “first non-western” voice to come out in support of French President Emmanuel Macron over the recent horrific killings in that country. This distinction apparently presents itself as too good to miss. The Rajya Sabha TV slotted a programme to castigate “Islamist […]
Is A ‘Great Social/Civilizational Reset’ Upon Us?
The simmering tensions between France’s extreme secularist system and Islamic society’s vehement condemnation of that Western government’s support for what they regard as blasphemous depictions of the Prophet Muhammad increase the likelihood that a “Great Social/Civliizational Reset” — which shouldn’t be wrongly equated with the so-called “Clash of Civilizations” scenario […]
Covid: A Curfew For What?
The French were stunned to learn that their government considers a public order measure, a curfew, to be effective in preventing an epidemic. Everyone, having understood that no virus breaks according to schedules set by decree, and given the many previous mistakes, asks the question: who is angry about a curfew for what?
Cultivated Lunacy, Nuclear Deterrence And Banning The Nuke
Is international relations a field for cautious minds, marked by permanent setbacks, or terrain where the bold are encouraged to seize the day? In terms of dealing with the existential and even unimaginable horror that is nuclear war, the bold have certainly stolen a march. The signature of Honduras was […]
The French Schoolteacher Terrorist Attack Raises Questions About Self-Censorship
The terrorist attack that was committed by a religious extremist against a French schoolteacher who showed his students cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad as part of a free speech lesson raises questions about the issue of self-censorship in Western societies, with the two points of contention being whether the victim […]
The Fall Of The Western Model
The Western model, based on capitalism and democracy, no longer manages to defend the general interest or guarantee popular sovereignty. By accumulating these two failures, it brings together the two ingredients of a generalized revolution.
The Time Of Troubles In Transcaucasia (II)
Part I The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin on October 2 that the European Union seeks a “constructive dialogue and a positive agenda” with Turkey. She had just returned to the German capital after a 2-day summit meeting of the EU countries in Brussels. Germany played a key […]
President Macron’s Bad Play In Lebanon
Playing Deus ex machina, President Macron came to distribute the good and bad points to the Lebanese leaders. Sure of his superiority, he said he was ashamed of the behavior of this political class. But all this is just a bad play. Underhandedly, he is trying to destroy the Resistance and to transform the country into a tax haven.
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