Reasonable taxation, free enterprise... Switzerland is often perceived as a country with a small government footprint. A study published this spring by the think-tank Avenir Suisse shows that things are not quite so straightforward. Read the report.
In the mid-2000s, faced with China's rise to power, the idea emerged of a necessary and close collaboration between China and the United States. Since then, so much has changed in the Sino-American relationship that the future does not bode well. But perhaps it could have been otherwise.
Published six years apart, Tom Clancy's anticipation novel «Red Storm» and Francis Fukuyama's essay «The End of History and the Last Man» offer a striking contrast: the fear of a world war is followed by euphoria at the victory of democracies. In his own way, Fukuyama also tells the story of an unfulfilled future.
Few people anticipated the outbreak of war in the Ukraine, partly because it has characteristics that evoke a war that should have happened forty years ago. The novel «Tempête rouge» (Red Storm), published in 1986, proved to be just such a visionary work.
Southeast Asia now lives in the shadow of China and under American pressure. Is there an alternative for the region's governments in this battle of giants?
Ever since the wave that brought Donald Trump to power, particularly since his challenge to the 2016 election result, American democracy seems to be going from bad to worse. Far from content with this, conservatives are ready to go even further.
For almost a year now, Russian soldiers have been fighting in Ukraine in a war whose rationality escapes most of the world. On the Ukrainian side, the reasons for fighting are almost self-evident, a question of survival. In the Russian ranks, the question arises.
Federalists and anti-federalists clashed violently during the renewal of the American constitution in the second half of the 18th century. Like no other in history, this divide sheds light on the debate between the center and the periphery. It's hard not to see it as a reflection of contemporary issues.
DOSSIER «LA FIN DU MONDE» | Hong Xiuquan, un lettré raté qui manqua quatre fois ses examens et qui, après une crise existentielle, rencontra Dieu auprès de missionnaires chrétiens, fut l’élément déclencheur de l’un des conflits armés les plus meurtriers de l’histoire.
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