Essays
Should we follow or freeze the money when fighting terrorism and organised crime?
What are the advantages and drawbacks of each strategy? Is one more efficient than the other? When should one be favoured over the other?
Articles
Essays
[French] L’Afrique a-t-elle vraiment besoin d’institutions fortes ?
Comment améliorer la gouvernance en Afrique? Par le haut, en renforçant les institutions étatiques déjà (trop) fortes? La voie populaire, par le bas, est-elle alors à privilégier?
Essays
Has the world entered a “no war, no peace” era?
Is a Western-dominated world order really a guarantee for peace? How has the shift from power rivalry to power inequality changed warfare? What is “weakness politics”? Does peace still exist?
Research
The Colour revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan
What sparked the Colour revolutions? Did they bring democracy and the rule of law? What role did the US play? How did it impact relations with Russia?
Briefs
NIGERIA and Boko-Haram
How did Boko Haram get control of Lake Chad? How does Boko Haram differ from the Islamic State? What is the connection between terrorism and criminality? What hinders Nigerian counter-terrorist efforts?
Briefs Essays
A collapse of the Taliban regime in the medium term (3-5 years)?
How likely is it that the Taliban regime will collapse in 3 to 5 years? Will internal divisions, rebel groups, popular unrest and foreign pressure make it fall?
Essays Research
Administrating imperial territories between the 1880s and 1939
How was political, economic and cultural domination organised? What were the different modes of colonial administration? How was the colonial system challenged both in the metropole and in the colonies?
Essays Research
Imperial hierarchies between the 1880s and the 1990s
How were racial hierarchies justified and implemented? Why was there also a hierarchy among colonised populations? How did colonial conquests fuel imperial rivalries?
Essays
Should the EU get its own intelligence agency?
What are the shortcomings of the EU’s intelligence apparatus? Is a European Intelligence Agency the solution? How to foster cooperation between member States?
Briefs
Summary of Arab-Israeli Conflicts since 1948
What were the causes & consequences of the various wars? How do Israeli-Palestinian tensions impact the broader regional context? How do the PLO and the Hamas differ? Why have attempts to pacify Israeli-Palestinian relations fail?
Briefs
International Humanitarian Law (jus in bello)
What are the Geneva and La Haye conventions? What are the three components of the Law of Armed Conflicts? Are human rights law and humanitarian law the same? What are the 5 core principles of the LOAC?
Essays Research
What is a Nation ?
What are the two tenets on which rests the concept of nation? Are nations eternal? Are they linked to notions of race, language, religion, interest or geography?
Research
A Short History of Russia
Twelve centuries of Russian history to discover how Russia has built its identity under the Mongols, Ivan the Terrible, the Romanov, the Soviet Union and now Vladimir Putin.
Essays Research
Humiliation in International Relations
How can globalisation and Western modernity be both desired and rejected? What are the humiliating ways in which the West sustains its global domination? How does humiliation fuel national narratives? How have wars changed in a way that humiliation has become systematic?
Research
CHINA in AFRICA, a “shared future”?
Is it a “win-win” relation? Does China help Africa develop? Does it use “debt-trap diplomacy”? How does China play the big brother? What challenges will it face?
Briefs
Limits of the Power Vacuum Logic in Africa
Liberal actors see Africa as a proxy landscape for their power rivalry with illiberal countries. However, they forget that African States have their own agency and that it’s not a simple zero-sum game, a vacuum is not always spatial.
Research
RUSSIA, a predator in AFRICA
What is Russia’s strategy in Africa? How does it use the Wagner group? What’s happening in CAR, Mali, Sudan and SAF? What can limit Russia’s influence?
Briefs
Weak and Failed States in Africa
Who is at the basis of the DRC’s educational system? How do Chad’s rural populations settle property-related disputes? Why do Guinean hunters perform law enforcement missions? Why is a NGO fighting terrorism in Benin’s national parks?
Research
From Clinton to Biden: a look back on 30 years of US leadership
Delve into Bill Clinton’s pragmatic Wilsonianism, George W. Bush’s “America First”, Barack Obama’s smart power, Donald Trump’s unilateralism and Joe Biden’s Cold War mentality…
Briefs
ETHIOPIA, ERITREA and the TIGRAY war
What was Ethiopia’s position during the Cold War? What is the history of the relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea? What sparked the Tigray War in 2020?
