The Human Archipelago / L'Archipel humain

  It is difficult not to be amazed by the propensity of the English-speaking world, as seen especially in the media, to present the invasion of Ukraine as something for which it bear no responsability. It can be seen, for instance, in the use and overuse the expression 'unprovoked war'. That invasion, apparently, just happened for no apparent reason, outside of any rational explanation, through some kind of act of God. It is as if: A) the US broken promises about any future expansion of NATO toward the East were never made, B) said expansion never became a reality over a period of many years, C) Russia continued to be treated and portrayed like the very embodiement of evil on Earth, and D) NATO (a military alliance, it must be remembered) could not possibly be seen as some kind of threatening force by those being targeted by its advance advance. Also, the repeated use of the expression 'Putin's war' must be noted. That expression seems to indicate that the whole co

  Devant les changements géopolitiques en cours, le gouvernement japonais a entrepris un exercice de redéfinition de ses intérêts. Plusieurs Japonais, par contre, trouvent que le gouvernement n'est pas allé assez loin dans cette démarche. De fait, un tel débat au sein de la société japonaise est nécessaire et, pour bien le comprendre, il faut revenir quelques décennies en arrière... La conquête du Japon par les USA en 1945 a constitué un choc majeur pour cette société. Il en a résulté bien des changements, notamment sous la forme de contraintes assez particulières pour ce pays-archipel, souverain en droit, mais colonisé et déclassé en pratique, avec une constitution lui interdisant de faire la guerre (!), une population traumatisée par la destruction nucléaire et une culture profondément américanisée. La nature même de la constitution japonaise, il faut le dire, est en porte-faux avec la définition de ce qui constitue un État souverain et a pour effet concret de faire du Japon un

  It is quite normal and understandable for the Ukrainians to wish that the countries forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should do more to help them, even if it means running the risk of creating an out of control situation, of starting an escalation process that leads to war with a nuclear power. It is understandable, but it is a very chancy and dangerous game. The hard, cold truth of the matter is that NATO is ready to fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian, but nothing more. Yes, it is ready to continue to cheer the Ukrainians, provide them with material, and gave them huge amounts of money. It may also up the ante, by sending Patriots, for instance, but that will simply force Russia to reciprocate in some way. The reality of NATO's ineffectiveness has been there since the start of the war, and the Ukrainians have done their utmost to ignore it, while they were fighting for the survival of their sovereign republic. But then, that reality is not going away, a

  There is a very good reason for Chinese companies to create factories in Asia and Africa: lower wages. The main ingredient behind the rise of industrial power in China, in the last thirty years, was the willingness of the average Chinese worker to toil for next to nothing. It gave China a labor cost advantage that helped it becoming the workshop of the world. But then, things are in the process of changing, with slow, incremential increases in chinese wages and with also the increasing economic pressure coming from countries with an even lower wage structure, like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, etc. All those countries are using against the Middle Kingdom the same recipe used by China to undercut the Western countries, that is to say a cheap labor force. Nobody should be surprised, then, in such an environment, to see Chinese companies building industrial parks all over Asia and Africain, and filling them with rows of very-low-wages factories, usually linked to China through

  Something important is brewing in the Middle East. The recent meetings between the current President of China and the future King of Saudi Arabia are only the tip of the iceberg. They're official and symbolic events, full of rituals and usually devoid of surprises, but they're also the result of something much deeper, something that may well have a bearing on the long term future of the region. They're a manifestation of he tectonic plates of the whole Middle East, shifting and realigning under the force of economic and political currents. Officially, the countries of the region wants to steer a difficult course, staying close to the United States, while taking into account the interests of a growing colossus, China. That country wish to be more present and to have a footprint that fit its increrasing influence. For instance, the Chinese President want to continue chipping away at the hegemony of the US dollar. He also want to be seen as a dealmaker in world affairs. In

  Dans les années '60, avec le programme Apollo, l'humanité a fait un premier pas hors de son berceau, afin de se rendre jusqu'à la Lune, mais sans y rester d'une façon permanente, revenant à la planète-mère aussitôt que possible. Par la suite, l'exploration spatiale s'est surtout faite à l'aide d'engins automatisés, avec des expéditions de plus en plus lointaines. Parallèlement à cela, toutefois, l'occupation de l'orbite basse de la Terre a pris place d'une façon progressive et est devenue de plus en plus permanente, avec une série de stations spatiales, d'abord soviétiques, puis américaines, jusqu'à la mise en place de la Station spatiale internationale, puis de la toute récente station chinoise. Depuis une dizaine d'années, on sent une effervescence croissante dans le domaine spatiale. Cette énergie se déploie un peu partout, jusqu'à de minuscules astéroïdes, mais elle se voit surtout avec une multiplication de missions en