"We must not humiliate Russia"
: this sentence of Emmanuel Macron pronounced last June had caused controversy.
However, the President of the Republic was right to point to humiliation as a strategic key to international crises.
This is the whole theme of the book by geopolitical consultant Étienne de Gail, which explores this powerful spring in the history of peoples.
As a good disciple of Hubert Védrine, who prefaced his essay, Étienne de Gail approaches the progress of the world through the prism of realism.
It doesn't matter if the humiliation is real or fantasized, the “sense of humiliation” remains a powerful driving force.
“Those who believe that peoples will follow their interests rather than their passions have understood nothing of the 20th century,”
said Raymond Aron.
This remains true in the 21st century.
The liberal utopia of an international order based on reason and the channeling of collective passions has fizzled out.
Gone are the days when one could predict, like the American journalist Thomas…
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