In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration initiated a revolution altering the course of American foreign policy. The entire decision making process was re-orientated while traditional administrative rivalries faded considerably. Decision making management became less formal primarily because the terrorist threat required an increased reactivity. The « War Cabinet » that was set up gathered the main decision makers of the National Security Council (NSC) and took a series of decisions that was to change the course of international relations. At the same time, the decision making process evolved, marked by the war in Afghanistan, while the invasion of Iraq emerged in the shadow of a one-sided vision of the international system’s construction.

  Three years after the American intervention in Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban’s regime, the October 9, 2004 presidential election – the first in Afghanistan’s history – paves the way for reconstruction and democratization. However, the consequences of twenty-five years of war are still present and the future is still uncertain. These elections were the result of the Bonn’s agreements, imposed to the anti-Taliban opposition by the international community, led by the United States which reigns supreme over a country under its protection. This uncertainty derives mainly from the conditions of the American intervention, which was a circumstantial response to the 9/11 attacks more than the result of a real willingness to establish democracy in Afghanistan. Hence the persistence of warlords’ power, of drugs trafficking, and of Taliban’s ideology.

  Samuel P. Huntington’s warnings of a « Hispanic threat » do not seem to be justified. Contrary to what this Harvard professor asserts in his latest book, the flood of Mexican immigrants to the United States during the last decades does not imply the end of the American national identity nor the division of the country around two languages and two cultures. Despite the number and the persistence of a mostly Catholic and Spanish speaking Mexican immigration, several studies reveal that Hispanics integrate the American culture and language quite rapidly, while keeping a distinctive tie to their original culture. While Huntington sets himself up as the defender of the Anglo-Protestant values that shaped America, his fear of the Hispanic community underlines the necessity to regularize and control the influx of Mexican immigrants. After three years of tense relations between the two governments, it is time for both countries to look seriously into the immigration issue.

  As North-Korea’s nuclear crisis enters its third year, resistance capacities of Pyongyang’s regime raise a growing number of questions. Facing intense diplomatic and military pressures as the country sinks into under-development, the logic behind Kim Jong-il’s political and economic orientations is not clear : are these the last moments of a decomposing system or, on the contrary, real changes ? Taking a closer look, the death throes of North Korea’s regime do not constitute the most alarming sign. The reinforcement of regional military capacities is indeed far more disturbing than the « reality » of North Korea’s threat, whether it is nuclear or not.

  Economic liberalism and the hardening of the political regime seem to be the characteristics of Vladimir Putin’s come to power. The reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev have been replaced by a conservative reaction under V. Putin’s « chequists ». However, the control of the opposition forces is hardly acceptable for the Russian society as well as for Western democracies. The nature of V. Putin’s conservatism is analyzed in this article through the lenses of Russia’s recent history, its past power and the hopes of Russian society. The popularity of V. Putin’s regime is studied with regard to the president’s economic and political prospects of accomplishment.

  The French administrative divisions known as « collectivités locales », although they are briefly mentioned in international relations publications, have become, thanks to the cooperation they engage, full actors of international relations. Known as « decentralized cooperation », their particular policy has been developed for fifty years. Born in France, decentralized cooperation has reached a world scale and is developed in a bilateral and a multilateral way. This new « diplomacy of the cities » was originally based on the values of peace and reconciliation in Europe, before enlarging to solidarity and development, and to the attendance of the vast decentralization movement in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Mediterranean, Latin America and Africa.

  Religious violence is neither the privilege of a particular religion or cult, nor of a particular period in history or a region of the world. In order to understand this kind of violence, it is necessary to analyze the development of this phenomena in the long term, but also to compare different manifestations of religious violence. While avoiding a rough examination of current affairs that could lead to a confusion on this matter, the author tackles the link between violence and religion, particularly through the prism of legitimacy. Indeed, numerous violent groups seek legitimacy by claiming to serve a religion. Is state’s control of legitimate violence threatened by this form of violence that looks for its legitimacy in heaven ?

  Judaism’s fundamentalist temptation is present no only within the Israeli society, but also in the Diaspora. This trend is characterized by rigorist interpretations whose origins can be found in Europe’s history and in the Middle East wars, particularly those of 1967 and 1973. The colonization of the Palestinian Territories, which began in the 1960’s as a political project, was appropriated by Jewish extremist groups that translated this policy into religious terms. Today, traditional Israeli political groups have to deal with this influent and sometimes violent minority present on Israel’s political scene.

  United States’ collective habitus is influenced by the notion of American exceptionalism. This religious system largely plays a part in the definition of the US strategy and in the use of military power. Indeed, military power is supposed to promote American interests while preserving the country from any interactions with the outside world that could alter the US « providential » nature. This results, among other things, in a US technological over-investment. The relationship between the « Manifest Destiny » and the American strategy has been built since the 18th century, and is perpetuated and increased with the US current neo-messianic trend, which was applied in Iraq.

  The author describes in this article the social and political causes of the fundamentalist progression in the Muslim world. Two actors, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have played a major role in the recent development of this trend. Their goals and strategies are analyzed in order to understand these strategic and political choices. In this regard, the internal deadlocks of Arab regimes seem to be the main explanation for these islamist groups’ influence in Muslim societies, and of their progressive radicalization into violence. The link between Islam and politics is also considered, as well as the relation of attraction / repulsion with the western world. Why do Islamists have such an impact on Muslim societies ? Is radical Islamism the result of pan-Arabic nationalism failures ?

  The religious system in Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be accused of having nurtured ethnic violence during the last war in this region. The Orthodox Church took without any doubt profit of the situation to reinforce itself, but this trend was limited among the Serbs who had a Yugoslav culture, that is Serbs who were both socialist and atheistic. On the other side, the Muslim religion has become an instrument of unification and identity for Alija Izetbegovic’s party. Actually, the only church capable of exerting a real power over its people – i.e. Croats – is the Catholic Church. However, since the beginning of the hostilities, Srebrenice’s Diocesan and Franciscan clergy have strongly articulated their will to preserve ethnic mixing all over the region. More ambiguously, Franciscans from Herzegovina weren’t formally opposed to the Croat’s ethnic cleansing policy in this region.

  In geopolitical terms, Iraq is a zone combining multiple religious groups : it is the borderline between Sunni and Shiite Islam, between the Arab world on the one hand, and the Persian and Turkish worlds on the other. Thus, the Iraqi war seems to reveal the current challenges of the world were identities, religions and cultures have a predominant place when it comes to conflict causes. Instead of the « New Middle East » promised by neo-conservative ideologists, it is rather the catastrophic scenario of the clash of civilizations that seems to be prevailing. It would be premature to condemn today the American project in the ancient Mesopotamia, but the « libanization » of Iraq’s situation forces us to wonder about the influence of the religious issue.