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FRENCH RIFT WITH US COULD SPREAD ACROSS EUROPE
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(20/12/2004)

Ignore Germany, forgive Russia and punish France. This remark made by United States Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice after the US invaded Iraq ought to characterize the new relationship between America and France.

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CHINA AND U.S. : COMPETING GEOPOLITICAL STRATEGIES
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/12/2004)

Ever since Richard Nixon went to China on Feb. 21, 1972 to visit Mao Zedong, the world's geopolitical alignments have never been the same. The meeting represented a spectacular shift in geopolitical hostilities of the post-1945 period.

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LES RELATIONS ENTRE L'UE ET L'AMERIQUE LATINE
Par Jean-Michel Dasque
(15/11/2004)

Le Sommet de Guadalajara a attiré l’attention d’une opinion indifférente et souvent mal informée sur les relations entre l’Union européenne (UE) et le groupe Amérique latine Caraïbes (AlC). Ces dernières sont relativement anciennes.

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THE 2004 ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/11/2004)

George W. Bush has been reelected President of the United States, and he has increased his margin of support in both houses of the Congress. What happens now - in the United States, in the world?

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DOLLAR IS SINKING AS DEFICIT MOUNTS
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(14/11/2004)

The US dollar hit a record level of 1.3007 against the euro last Wednesday and is now hovering at around 1.2970. It is amazing that the greenback slumped to the all-time low soon after Washington released its monthly statistics on jobs creation.

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THE MIDDLE EAST CAULDRON - THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(01/11/2004)

Whoever is President of the United States, the basic political dilemmas of the Middle East will be the same in the coming five years. There are three loci of crucial happenings and probable major shifts in the coming period: Iraq, Iran, and Israel/Palestine.

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THE REFERENDUM
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/10/2004)

The U.S. elections on November 2 will be a referendum on George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. If the entire world had a vote, Bush would lose overwhelmingly.

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AFTER IRAQ, IRAN ?
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(01/10/2004)

Iran and its possible nuclear weapons has become again a matter of active discussion in the media and debate in the U.S. government and world diplomatic channels. The immediate background is clear. When George W. Bush constructed his "axis of evil," he listed Iran along with Iraq and North Korea as one of the three countries of which he was speaking.

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WHAT HAS THE U.S. ACHIEVED IN IRAQ ?
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/09/2004)

Most of the world think that the U.S. policy in Iraq has been a political failure. Even a majority of the U.S. electorate seems to think so, according to the latest polls.

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LEGACY OF A 'WAR PRESIDENT' IS NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(13/09/2004)

The American Presidential campaign still has a few weeks to run, and a few million dollars still to be thrown around. Whoever from Kerry or Bush wins the election (a narrow win it seems), America, as a most powerful country, remains a compulsory reference to the rest of the world.

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SHARON'S EXPANSIONISM CONTRAVENES INTERNATIONAL LAW
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(30/08/2004)

As he runs frenetically against time, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is giving final touches to his Gaza evacuation plan.

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WHAT'S A NEW TRANSATLANTIC ALLIANCE FOR ?
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(16/08/2004)

American troops are hardly pausing in their bombing campaigns in Iraq. The rest of the world cannot stop crying -without doing anything- about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hatred and violence in the Occupied Territories.

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A PRIMER ON U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(09/08/2004)

U.S. presidential elections are always important, at least for the last 100 years or so. And they affect everyone throughout the world. The election of 2004 is an unusually tense one for several reasons. A larger percentage of the U.S. and the world's population believe it matters. The predictions are for an extremely close election.

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TURKEY’S ADMISSION TO EU IS A MATTER OF GRAVE CONCERN
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(02/08/2004)

“The Turkish are very good people” said the Prince of Metternich 150 years ago after the Chio massacres in Greece. “They slaughter the Greeks and the Greeks behead them. It is a matter off-civilisation”. The question of Turkey joining the European Union (actually, in a first step which may last up to 15 years, negotiating it) is thus not a new issue.

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IF NOT ISRAEL, WHO MAKES THE WORLD MORE DANGEROUS ?
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(19/07/2004)

A year and a half ago, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell was indignant at the United Nations because the then government of Iraq would not respect the last two UN resolutions passed against it.

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WHAT IS SOVEREIGNTY WHEN THE US CONTROLS IRAQ
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(05/07/2004)

By virtue of American democracy, a CIA-trained former Baathist with British connections has become the Prime Minister of a Shiite-majority country.

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GEOPOLITICAL TURMOIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(01/07/2004)

Iraqi sovereignty has been "returned" to the Iraqi people, more or less. What now? Everyone is waiting to see if the guerilla war against the United States will now abate. It seems most unlikely. If not, what can we expect - in the next six months, in the next five years?

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IS AMERICAN DEMOCRACY HEADING TOWARDS TYRANNY ?
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(21/06/2004)

The Bush administration has misled the American people. It has been lying repeatedly for the past two years. This may not seem anything new to us but to the United States Congressional commission investigating the 9/11th 2001 attacks, it was.

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NARROW IS THE ROAD TO DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(07/06/2004)

The lesson may be hard to learn but nobody can deny that what happened in Al Khobar two weeks ago was the price being paid by the Saudi authorities for the lack of political vision. Growing unrest in Saudi Arabia, as seen in these past months, may become a threat and is surely not helpful for the stability of the region.

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DAILY HORRORS MUST NOT STOP THE LOOKING FORWARD
Par Luc Debieuvre, administrateur de l'Iris
(24/05/2004)

While events in Occupied Palestine and in Iraq repeat themselves day after day with nothing but a steady progress towards horror, analysis tend to be limited to only the latest event

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U.S. WITHDRAWAL ?
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(01/05/2004)

In the beginning of 2003, the great debate, in the United States and throughout the world was, should the United States go into Iraq ? Now the debate has become, should the United States withdraw from Iraq ?

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THE U.S. IS LOSING THE WAR
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/04/2004)

The challenge to the U.S. occupation of Iraq has suddenly become serious. The media and politicians alike, across the world and inside the United States, are for the first time taking seriously the question, can the U.S. prevail in Iraq?

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SHARON WILL CONTINUE TO ATTACK
Par Luc Debieuvre, politologue et économiste
(09/04/2004)

" In the long run, the elimination of Yassin may have been a tremendous step toward peace ". This is what the Wall Street Journal wrote on March 23rd, 2004 after the assassination of the spiritual leader of Hamas. Thoogh much has been said about the assassination, it is necessary that we come back to it as the whole environment has now changed

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SPAIN, EUROPE, AND MR. BUSH
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(01/04/2004)

On Thursday, March 11, 2004, in the early morning, bombs exploded almost simultaneously in several Madrid train terminals. Over 200 people were killed, and many more hurt. It was a terrible, cruel disaster and there was instant shock and grief in Spain and around the world. The first question of course was, who did it?

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LA PARTITION IRAKIENNE
Par Barah Mikaïl
(19/03/2004)

Quel bilan peut-on tirer de l'occupation américaine de l'Irak, qui entre déjà dans sa seconde année ? Rien de bien réjouissant, si l'on en croit les nouvelles qui nous parviennent jour après jour et tendent à confirmer la situation chaotique qui règne dans le pays.

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BUSH HAS NOT ACHIEVED HIS JOB
Par Luc Debieuvre, politologue et économiste
(15/03/2004)

President George W. Bush has said recently: "Who can deny us that we are now living in a safer world?" I do. Not only do I deny it but I also accuse and blame President Bush for not 'having achieved the job'. Despite there being unanimous international support for the war in Afghanistan, today no Afghan member of government can leave Kabul at night without putting his life in danger.

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HAITI : THE BICENTENNTIAL COUP D'ETAT
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/03/2004)

In a world where many countries have sad tales to tell, Haiti is quite possibly at the top of the list.

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ONE MAY PREFER DEMOCRATS TO SMOKING GUNS
Par Luc Debieuvre, politologue et économiste
(01/03/2004)

A 'New Vision for a Greater Middle East' has become the talk of the day. A G-8 Summit to be held next June at Sea Island will address the issue, to be followed by another one in Istanbul under the auspices of the NATO.

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PROLIFERATION DIPLOMACY : THE GAMES NATION PLAY
par Immanuel Wallerstein
(01/03/2004)

The headlines in recent months have been full of nuclear diplomacy. It is hard to keep a straight face reading them. Libya has renounced making nuclear bombs forever. Pakistan's nuclear hero, Abdel Qadeer Khan, has confessed that he (and he alone in Pakistan) has been selling nuclear secrets on the world black market for two decades.

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UPON THE WALL, I WRITE YOUR NAME, FREEDOM…
par Luc Debieuvre, Politologue et économiste
(16/02/2004)

Fifteen years ago, the Berlin Wall collapsed under a population's willingness to be free. In this early 2004, PM Sharon goes on erecting another wall of shame. A common characteristic to liars is their constancy in distorting facts. The erection of an eight-meter high concrete wall on Palestinian land is a latest adamant example of the way people are able to travesty the truth.

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THE WAR PRESIDENT SINKING IN THE MIRE
Par Immanuel Wallerstein
(15/02/2004)

"I'm a war president," George W. Bush told Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press on Feb, 8, 2004. The statement only makes his case weaker. President Bush has had his former Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill testify that war against Iraq was on the cabinet's agenda from the day Bush took office.

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BIENS PUBLICS MONDIAUX
La nouvelle frontière de la solidarité internationale
Par Charles Josselin, Ancien Ministre français de la Coopération
(05/02/2004)

Rappeler à tous que nous vivons sur la même planète et que nous n'en avons qu'une, n'est pas le moindre mérite de la théorie des Biens Publics Mondiaux.

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SOFT MULTILATERALISM
By Immanuel Wallerstein
(02/02/2004)

The hawks around George W. Bush believed the United States had been in a slow decline for at least thirty years. Their remedy called for the United States to flex its considerable military muscle, abandon all pretense of multilateral consultations with hesitant and weak allies, and proceed to intimidate both friends and enemies alike

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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Par Luc Debieuvre - Politologue et économiste
(02/02/2004)

At the very beginning, there were two sisters, two French teenagers born from a non practising Muslim mother and a non practising Jewish father. As they lived in one of these areas where integration is an every day challenge, they found a way to make them noticed through the wearing at school of a Muslim headscarf, something which is not really part of our traditions. Under normal circumstances, any school headmaster would have warned them and sent them back home if they’d refused to dress like any other schoolmate here. Unfortunately in France, when one lacks authority, one writes a law.

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LE DESARROI ARABE
De Hichem Ben Yaïche - journaliste, spécialiste des relations euroméditerranéennes
(30/01/2004)

Le conflit irakien à une nouvelle fois montré l’état de fragilité extrême de la nation arabe. Mais a-t-elle les ressources nécessaires pour se relever ?

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LA CHAINE DE TELEVISION AL-HURRA : UN MEDIA SOUS INFLUENCE
Par Pascal Boniface - Directeur de l'IRIS
(15/01/2004)

Les Etats-Unis ont lancé une vaste offensive médiatique à destination du monde arabe. Ils viennent de créer une nouvelle chaîne de télévision Al-Hurra qui est une chaîne d’information et de divertissement et qui émet par satellite depuis Springfield, près de Washington.

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