Université Paris Dauphine
Our contributor Gérard Vespierre took part in the Cercle Géopolitique’s 2015/16 lecture series, held under the academic direction of Bernard Guillochon, on Wednesday, 30 March 2016, on the theme “Syria, Iraq: A Third Kind of World War?” fondation.dauphine.fr
He began by recalling that, in a geopolitical subject, it is customary and fitting to start with geography — a task our contributor duly undertook at the outset of his talk. He then set out his view of the causes of the disaster in the Middle East, describing a volcanic situation, that is to say, three tectonic plates colliding: one enormous tectonic plate whose roots lie in the past, particularly in political history — a backward-looking, political plate (the French mandate over Syria, the Maronites, the Russian presence… the inauguration of the first stage of the Aswan Dam in Egypt by Nikita Khrushchev and Gamal Abdel Nasser, the advent of an Islamic republic in Iran…) — which collided with two other plates: a religious plate (Shia, Sunni…) and an “Arab Spring” plate (the butterfly-effect theory: Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire on 17 December 2010 in Tunisia, and by 15 March — barely three months later — the first demonstrators were already in the streets of Damascus…).
We therefore invite you to watch the video below to hear our contributor Mr Gérard Vespierre’s illuminating talk.