When Violation Becomes a Method of Government One of the major mutations of contemporary leadership is the transformation of transgression into a political resource. Where leaders once sought to appear as guardians of limits — legal, moral, and diplomatic — some now build their legitimacy on the ability to cross them. This posture is not merely an electoral strategy; it reflects a psychology of power in which domination is demonstrated through the capacity to ignore constrain

From idealism to cynicism: an anatomy of a field of power For a long time, politics was driven by major structuring ideologies: socialism, liberalism, conservatism, decolonization, the welfare state. These frameworks gave collective meaning, historical direction, and a sense of purpose. Today, those grand narratives have weakened. Politics has become more technical, more focused on communication, and more opportunistic. This shift has profoundly changed the types of people it

Understanding their power of attraction in order to break free from it Adherence to far-right ideas—whether based on the rejection of immigration, fear of the so-called “great replacement,” religious identity-based withdrawal, or certain forms of religious extremism—is often analyzed through social, economic, or cultural factors. These elements certainly matter. But they are not enough to explain why such ideas can sometimes provide those who embrace them with a sense of cert

Emmanuel Macron perfectly embodies the profile of the "top of the class": a tireless worker, rigorous technician, intellectually armed, obsessed with reform coherence and mastery of files. But in today's political world, this traditional model has been overturned: the top of the class are now the most disruptive, aggressive, and outrageous. Overturn of Codes Long valued, the top-of-the-class profile—reason, procedure, compromise—is now disqualified as "cold technocrat" or "di

For much of the 20th century, the United States exercised a form of influence unparalleled in modern history. Its power did not rest solely on military strength or economic dominance, but on something far more subtle and potent: the ability to make the world dream . Through Hollywood, music, technology, universities, the pioneer spirit, and constant innovation, America came to feel as though it belonged to everyone—or at least to those who had not turned it into a sworn enemy

There exists a particular form of weakness that stems neither from a lack of resources nor from a deficit of intelligence, but from a temporal mismatch . In The World of Yesterday , Stefan Zweig offers a painfully lucid account of a cultivated, humanist, rational Europe that believed it had definitively left behind the age of brutality. It thought it was living in a pacified era, while others had already settled into a time of conquest . Pacifist naivety does not lie in lovin

Contemporary dictatorships no longer content themselves with locking opponents in cells. They build a total prison, a sprawling system in which every individual — opponent, journalist, exile, but also loyal supporter of the regime — is imprisoned in another kind of cage: fear, guilt, uncertainty, pain, compromise. It is a machine that crushes everything, like an industrial fishing net that selects nothing: it catches the targeted fish, destroys innocent species, scrapes the s

The current political situation in France is often described—wrongly—as a major crisis . In reality, it represents a painful but...

A Lost Battle Against Bad News and Social Media In politics, not all news is created equal. A “good news story” – a successful reform, a...

Between Frozen Authority and Absolute Domination The distinction between dictatorship and totalitarianism is fundamental to understanding...

Democracy is often wrapped in a moral halo, as if its mere existence guarantees justice, equality, and dignity. But democracy is not...

The Case of Western Sahara and the Prospects of the New Russia–West Rivalry The 20th-century Cold War, which pitted the United States...

From Latin America to the Arab world, passing through Africa and Asia, anti-Western sentiment is on the rise, often expressed vehemently...

The Soviet Union—and later Russia—did not simply export weapons, ideology, or military aid to the developing world. It exported something...

At a time when social media overflows with flag-waving emojis, chest-beating declarations about the "purity" of a nation, and hollow...

Throughout history and into the modern day, many regimes have built their authority not on the freely given consent of the governed, but...

Since the end of World War II, a large part of Western populations — especially in Europe and North America — has followed a relatively...

In contemporary history, there is a recurring and troubling phenomenon: authoritarian regimes reclaim, after their death, writers,...

When the fake slips into the real There is a discreet yet destructive phenomenon eroding even the most discerning consumers’ trust:...

If animals could speak, or if we could truly read their minds, humanity would face a harsh mirror: the realization that much of what we...