‘Axis of evil or access to diesel?: spaces of new imperialism and the Iraq war’

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was waged by the so-called ‘Coalition of the Willing’. This paper will examine how the war was a space in the ongoing geographical extension of global capitalism linked to U.S. foreign policy. Was it simply the decision by a unitary, hegemonic actor in the inter-state system overriding concerns by other states? Was it an imperialist move to secure the ‘global oil spigot’? Alternatively, did the use of military force reflect the interests and emergence of a transnational state apparatus? In this paper, we argue that the U.S. needs to be conceptualised as a specific form of state, within which and through which national and transnational capital operate to establish the interests of a national fraction of an Atlantic ruling class. It is these processes of class struggle and their relation to wider struggles over spaces of imperialism, which need to be at the centre of analysis

Rhizocarpon geographicum Lichen Discloses a Highly Diversified Microbiota Carrying Antibiotic Resistance and Persistent Organic Pollutant Tolerance

International audienceAs rock inhabitants, lichens are exposed to extreme and fluctuating abiotic conditions associated with poor sources of nutriments. These extreme conditions confer to lichens the unique ability to develop protective mechanisms. Consequently, lichen-associated microbes disclose highly versatile lifestyles and ecological plasticity, enabling them to withstand extreme environments. Because of their ability to grow in poor and extreme habitats, bacteria associated with lichens can tolerate a wide range of pollutants, and they are known to produce antimicrobial compounds. In addition, lichen-associated bacteria have been described to harbor ecological functions crucial for the evolution of the lichen holobiont. Nevertheless, the ecological features of lichen-associated microbes are still underestimated. To explore the untapped ecological diversity of lichen-associated bacteria, we adopted a novel culturomic approach on the crustose lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum. We sampled R. geographicum in French habitats exposed to oil spills, and we combined nine culturing methods with 16S rRNA sequencing to capture the greatest bacterial diversity. A deep functional analysis of the lichen-associated bacterial collection showed the presence of a set of bacterial strains resistant to a wide range of antibiotics and displaying tolerance to Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Our study is a starting point to explore the ecological features of the lichen microbiota