Minorités, nationalités, Etats

Minorities, Nations, States, by Jean-Christophe Rufîn The collapse of Communism and the resulting international political realignments have given minorities an opportunity to reassert themselves. The author contends that a minority affirms its identity through conflict with the larger nation to which it belongs. How does one define the unifying force of a nation-state ? Though people may feel attached to their own region and its history, it is nonetheless possible to find shared cultural traits with the larger entity. This force for broad national unity tending to destroy minority identity is thus systematically resisted and leads to formation of separate blocs within society. Minority conflict can take many forms : in Yugoslavia minorities of comparable size are in conflict ; in Armenia the conflict results from génocide : in Sri Lanka the conflicts are linked to opposition to an ethnocratic State. The problems of minorities are high on diplomatie agendas in both North and South. What will be the outeome of this quest for liberty ?L'effondrement des systèmes communistes et l'ouverture d'une période de recomposition internationale ont permis aux mouvements minoritaires de s'exprimer plus vivement. Selon l'auteur, toute minorité nationale affirme son identité à travers un rapport conflictuel avec l'ensemble national dans lequel elle s'inscrit. Comment caractériser le processus unificateur d'un Etat-nation ? Si chacun suit un mouvement spécifique lié à sa région et à son histoire, il est néanmoins possible de dégager des traits généraux communs à tous. En effet, l'identité minoritaire, indissociable du processus d'unification qui tend à la dissoudre, incarne systématiquement une forme de résistance, de structuration sociétale. Ainsi naît le conflit minoritaire, conflit qui peut prendre des formes différentes selon les cas : conflits entre minorités de poids comparables en Yougoslavie, conflit issu du génocide d'une minorité en Arménie, ou conflit lié à l'instauration d'un Etat ethnocratique, comme au Sri Lanka. De plus, les problèmes minoritaires apparaissent aujourd'hui prioritaires dans les relations internationales : au Nord, la question se développe dans un cadre globalement démocratique, contrairement au Sud, où la pression minoritaire paraît prendre un tour explosif et anarchique. Quelle sera donc l'issue de cette quête de liberté des peuples ?Rufin. Minorités, nationalités, Etats. In: Politique étrangère, n°3 - 1991 - 56ᵉannée. pp. 629-641

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Relationship between bronchial hyperresponsiveness and impaired lung function after infantile asthma.

Wheezing during infancy has been linked to early loss of pulmonary function. We prospectively investigated the relation between bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and progressive impairment of pulmonary function in a cohort of asthmatic infants followed until age 9 years. We studied 129 infants who had had at least three episodes of wheezing. Physical examinations, baseline lung function tests and methacholine challenge tests were scheduled at ages 16 months and 5, 7 and 9 years. Eighty-three children completed follow-up. Twenty-four (29%) infants had wheezing that persisted at 9 years of age. Clinical outcome at age 9 years was significantly predicted by symptoms at 5 years of age and by parental atopy. Specific airway resistance (sRaw) was altered in persistent wheezers as early as 5 years of age, and did not change thereafter. Ninety-five per cent of the children still responded to methacholine at the end of follow-up. The degree of BHR at 9 years was significantly related to current clinical status, baseline lung function, and parental atopy. BHR at 16 months and 5 years of age did not predict persistent wheezing between 5 and 9 years of age, or the final degree of BHR, but it did predict altered lung function. Wheezing that persists from infancy to 9 years of age is associated with BHR and to impaired lung function. BHR itself is predictive of impaired lung function in children, strongly pointing to early airway remodeling in infantile asthma

Restoring the radical imagination in political economy

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