Le Nouvel ordre mondial : Forces sous-jacentes et résultats

Although much remains the same in world politics despite claims that a new global order has emerged out of the rubble of the Cold War, there is a level at which the emergence of a new order can be discerned. If one probes beneath the outcomes of international affairs and focuses on their underpinnings, it is possible to trace the utlines of new foundations of global politics. This new world order is depicted in terms of three basic parameters that bind the global System, each of which is posited as undergoing profound and enduring transformation. At the micro level the analytic skills of individuals everywhere are conceived to have undergone extensive expansion. At the macro level of systemic structure the transformation involves the bifurcation of world politics into a state-centric world and a multi-centric world, neither of which is predominant and both of which are responsive to the other. At the macro-micro level, which links individuals to their macro collectivities, transformation is seen to have occurred in authority relations, with the dynamics of change having moved authority structures from being in place to being in crisis. While these fundamental transformations are seen as fostering endless tensions between the centralizing and decentralizing forces at work in the world, the resulting turbulence is not viewed as amounting to disorder. Rather, the emergent global order is viewed as encouraging the institutionalization of the tensions, the outcome of which is readily discernible in present day relations among the states analyzed in this symposium

Les relations internationales de l'après-guerre froide: une mutation globale

The author analyzes the post-Cold War international arena thoroughly, be delineating one by one Us different systemic, geopolitical, hegemonic, and strategic metamorphoses. The emergence of a fragmented transnational subsystem — the social component of the international System — has made this era fertile ground for third-wave conflicts, i.e. cultural conflicts or shocks between civilizations. The lack of any recognized leadership and the collective exercise of the system's governability may lead one to observe that armed violence is being waged by means other than those of major inter-state wars. In such a context, one may deduce that emphasis on the concept of collective security is working to the detriment of defence-minded thinking and to the benefit of strategies for active and very early conflict prevention. The entire realm of strategy is thus open to a wide-ranging, Worldwide arena. The main consequences have been an end to the old custodial arrangements of geopolitics, thereby transforming NATO in Europe, and a renewed activism in Asia, where the trend is towards creation of a specific security subsystem. These transformations of the international System have brought about metamorphoses in the notions of enemy, boundary, conflict, and power. Such changes also highlight the « rationality deficit » now affecting the System and the proliferation of the notion of « meaning », which is everywhere lacking in consistency. The shifting of the security dilemma to the subnational, internal level has accordingly resulted from the breakup of nations and the decolonization of empires. The author concludes that it may prove useful, even valuable, to try and identify the normative elements of the post-Cold War international System and to outline, however imperfectly, the new distribution of international power. The reader will also find afresh look at the doctrinal debate about international System theory and about the epistemology of the discipline that deals with it

Libéralisme et tensions identitaires : éléments de réflexion sur le désarroi des sociétés modernes

Le présent texte propose une réflexion exploratoire sur la crise larvée qui caractérise les sociétés libérales démocratiques modernes — que certains ont appelé la « crise du lien social » ou la « perte de sens ». Ce qui apparaît comme une crise est en fait le produit de la mécanique naturelle de l’histoire des sociétés. Le procès de fragmentation avec lequel les sociétés modernes semblent aux prises est inscrit dans la logique inhérente au libéralisme. L’impression de crise est liée au procès moderne d’individualisation et aux tensions identitaires qu’il porte. Celles-ci en effet intensifient les contradictions de la communauté politique. La difficulté qu’éprouvent les sociétés modernes à gérer et à surmonter les défis idéologiques et conceptuels que posent ces contradictions contribue à la perplexité ambiante.This paper is an exploratory essay on the so-called "crisis" of modern liberal democratic societies. What appears as a crisis is but the product of the natural dynamics of History. The process of fragmentation that seems to befall modern societies is part of the inherent logic of liberalism. The feeling of crisis that seems to emanate from the current conjuncture is linked to the modern process of individualization and to the concomitant, politically loaded affirmation of varied, singular identities. As a result of this process, the contradictions of the political community have intensified. The difficulty modern societies experience in tackling the ideological and conceptual challenges of these contradictions contribute to the impression shared by many that social cohesion is seriously threatened

Chronique bibliographique. La politique étrangère de la France. Acteurs et processus [Marie-Christine Kessler, La politique étrangère de la France. Acteurs et processus, Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 1999.]

Les ouvrages de langue française sur la politique étrangère sont rares, les travaux sur la politique étrangère de la France plus encore, et à ce double titre le livre de Marie-Christine Kessler méritait déjà d'être salué. Mais ses mérites vont naturellement au-delà du seul témoignage. On ne peut qu'apprécier, en premier lieu, le choix opéré par l'auteur de se pencher sur les processus décisionnels – et donc sur les acteurs – de la diplomatie française actuelle. Il ne s'agit pas là, en effet, ..

La question de la société civile: la Chine et le chat du Cheshire

International audienceLa société civile dans la Chine du 20e siècle