*** BORIS CYRULNIK, TZVETAN TODOROV: La tentation du Bien est beaucoup plus dangereuse que celle du Mal. Le Monde / Editions de l’Aube (331 rue Amédée-Giniès, F-84240 La Tour d’Aigues. Tel: (33-4) 90074660 – Internet: http://www.editionsdelaube.com ). ‘Le monde des idées’ series. 2017, 51 pp, €9.90. ISBN 978-2-8159-2635-5.
There are short books that generate more reflection, or even meditation, than endless pensums and this book is one of them, in which two French intellectuals reflect on how to resist terror, which is perfectly of the moment as Islamists regularly spread death here, there and everywhere in the world, quite naturally generating anger. The authors point out, however, that anger is not a bad councillor...
Boris Cyrulnik and Tzvetan Todorov stress this throughout the dialogue in this book under the initiative of the French newspaper Le Monde, mediated by our fellow editorialist Nicolas Truong. It cannot be denied that they were perfectly placed to write ‘on the ability of individuals to slide into barbarism or rather to resist it.’ The former, when six and a half years old, was caught in a round-up of Jews in Bordeaux on 10 January 1944 and was one of the few to escape alive; the latter was born in 1939 in Bulgaria under the power of the Nazis before it fell to the Communists. They both suffered trauma from this and the way they have overcome these aspects of trauma lends clear weight to their arguments...
Arriving in France at the age of twenty-four, Todorov for a long time nourished a ‘general mistrust of everything defended by the State,’ his status of citizen of a democracy only appeared when ‘a sort of small wall’ fell in his ‘mind at the same time as the Berlin Wall.’ To official heroes, he therefore always preferred resistance activists like ethnologist and historian Germain Tillion who, at the height of the war in Algeria, refused to ‘allow that a just cause makes the idea of killing legitimate.’ Hence the very rapid accession of this semilogue and historian of ideas to a strong idea of Russian writer Vassili Grossman: ‘the temptation of Good is dangerous,’ arguing that ‘the great criminals through history have always been driven by the desire to spread Good,’ even Hitler, who ‘wanted Good for the chosen Arian Germanic race that he claimed to belong to.’ Being constructed not on aversion to States utilised in the name of an ideology but on the ‘vacuum’ left by friends and family who made the mistake of being Jewish, Boris Cyrulnik thinks the same: ‘It is in the name of ethics, in the name of humanity, that the worst crimes against humanity have been committed,’ he thunders home, pointing out that at the age of six and a half, he was seen as ‘ein Stück,’ a thing that could be burnt without remorse, that could be killed without guilt.’
For these two intellectuals, the same goes for Jihadis today who, says Todorov, are not driven solely by the desire to do Evil,’ but also ‘to do Good,’ although with ‘absolutely abominable’ means. Therefore, it is important to seek to understand Jihadism, to see why the ‘word humiliation’ serves as an ideological weapon for them to legitimise their violence, the way it was used in the past to serve the violence of the Nazis. Todorov says it is important to try to understand why ‘in a morbid manner, Jihad is a sign’ of a ‘broad seeking of meaning,’ which requires looking this reality in the face: in our world, ‘the only self-development, the only achievement of individual efforts is to become rich’ and to be able ‘to afford this or that outer sign of social success.’ Consequently, it is important to tackle this evil at the root which, the two thinkers say, means to manage to make a ‘perverse ethics’ one’s own: for Cyrulnik, barbarism starts where Human beings ‘submit to the theory of the One,’ the moment when ‘people come to believe that there is only one true god, so the others are false gods, those who believe in them being infidels, ‘ non-believers’ whose putting to death almost becomes a moral act.’ They say the danger would be that the victims of this perverted mindset would feel that they alone incarnate the Good and lead a crusade to this end, which would be worse than Evil.
Signed by Nicolas Truong, a portrait of Tzvetan Todorov, who died on 7 February 2017, is included in the book which, although it does not suggest solutions that would naturally apply to all, does breathe a little wisdom, which will undoubtedly provide some welcome ammunition for those who reject Manichaeism and continue to cultivate humanism. Michel Theys
*** PIETER VAN DIJK, FRIED VAN HOOF, ARJEN VAN RIJN, LEO ZWAAK (Eds.): Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights. Intersentia Ltd (Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge, CB3 0AX, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 370170 – Fax: 370169 – Email: mail@intersentia.co.uk – Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). 2018, 1,230 pp, €175, £199, $210. ISBN 978-1-78068-493-2.
As the leaders of more and more States, including the member states of the European Union, are finding it increasingly difficult to fully comply with the obligations that arise among others from the right of asylum and the rule of law, properly considered, this magisterial book (which is not in its fifth edition for nothing) may seem a useful reminder for all political leaders and those who aspire to join them, to make them aware of what is involved in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In the thirty-seven chapters of the book, leading experts – all members of the world of academia, but many also working as lawyers or judges – present and analyse in detail the measures of the Convention and the latest developments in case-law through which the European Court of Human Rights has interpreted them. The first edition of this irreplaceable working tool goes back to 1979, but this latest edition takes account of developments in case-law registered since 2006 and the impact of the coming into force of Protocol 14 on 1 June 2010. The book provides a precious description of the legal situation resulting from this Council of Europe Convention, readers benefiting from highly reliable explanations of its measures and how they are to be understood. In addition, Prof. Janneke Gerards (University of Utrecht) looks usefully at the relation between this Convention and the European Union, which has been growing as fundamental rights have growth in importance in the EU, particularly with the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. She looks at the question of the EU joining the Convention and the procedures and mechanisms prepared to make it possible. (PBo)
*** VASSILIS MOUTSOGLOU: Les critères dans la politique internationale. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – Fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2016, 278 pp, €15.98. ISBN 978-960-02-3084-0.
History is seen as the sum of situations and political decisions, the latter being taken under the influence of economic and social factors. However, it also arises from the way situations and the combination of criteria that determine them (and which form the basis for decisions) are assessed. For Vassilis Moutsoglou, a career diplomat and political scientist, history cannot be considered as a positive science because the same conditions do not always lead to the same decisions since personalities and circumstances differ and also, above all, because the decision-making process is always chaotic. Moreover, the scientific weight of each criterion used is a function of the epoch lived through and hence the international environment that prevailed at that point. However, history itself seems to generally repeat itself quite often (and generally not as a truly funny comedy…) because States’ decision-making criteria in international relations are specific and virtually unchangeable. The author lists them in this book in the light of various examples of the world’s diplomatic history. (AKa)
*** CHARLES ZORGBIBE: Une histoire du monde depuis 1945. 75 années qui ont changé la face du monde. Editions de Fallois (22 rue La Boétie, F-75008 Paris. Tel.: (33-1) 42669195 Internet: http://www.editionsdefallois.com ). 2017, 429 pp, €24. ISBN 978-2-87706-953-3.
Emeritus professor at the Sorbonne after being dean of the law faculty of Paris-Sud and then rector-chancellor of the universities of Aix-Marseille, Charles Zorgbibe is a prolific author of a raft of works on public law, biographies and historical essays. With this book, this lawyer and historian provides a penetrating look at the history of the world since World War Two. With erudition, he provides keys for interpreting the big dates and periods in recent history, ‘from the failed peace of 1945’ to the consequences of the attack on 11 September 2001, viz. ‘the current planetary closing of doors’. He describes and provides meaning one-by-one to the ‘birth of the blocks’ from 1957 to 1962, ‘the erosion of the bipolar order’ in 1962-1985, the fall of Communism in Europe from 1985 to 1990, and finally the ‘post-Cold War period in the world’ in 1990-2001. Fully respecting the facts, his interpretations are based on considerations far from history, such as when he draws a parallel between the ‘bipolar system’ born with the Yalta agreement and the situation that prevailed in Ancient Greece, with the war between the Athenians and Lacdemonians analysed by Thucydide in the ‘war of the Pelopponese.’ An identical long view is taken when the author sees a precedent to the ‘Atlantic and Warsaw alliances’ in the alliance between François the First and Sultan Suliman II in 1536. Prof. Zorgbibe sees in the years 1989-1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions in Eastern Europe and the formation of an international coalition against Saddam Hussein, the inauguration of a new international system incorporating ’certain characteristics of the Europe of Sarajevo, of the Europe of 1914, through the exaltation of national or even ethnic identifies – and also other more Wilsonian characteristics, such as the role acquired by defence of human rights.’ As we see, this is a veritable course in which the reader is allowed one to understand the world the way it is and also where it has come from and the reader can also count on the author’s talent for explaining in a very simple way – without being simplistic or reductionist – inevitably complex pages of history.
Crowned by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in 2005 for his work ‘Histoire de l’Union européenne’, this French professor also confirms that he is a European marked by independence of mind when, for example, after raising the ‘vast political plans’ of the Schuman Declaration (from which, he explains, Great Britain dissociated itself, ‘hostile to any alteration in sovereignty, distrustful of this new ‘Lotharingie’ that was too influenced, the way the Labour Party saw it, by Christian-Democracy’), he provides a detailed explanation of the gestation of the European Defence Community and its scuppering by France, which reviled is supranational nature. The balance sheet of the Europe adventure that he draws up is without illusions, the author seeing the ‘Common Market as having disintegrated into a free-trade zone, the competition policy being the only common policy to have escaped the shipwreck. The author sees three possible destinies emerging in the future, that of a ‘helvetic Europe’ that would preserve a degree of institutional stability, that of a ‘new Holy Empire’ that would punctuate a slow decay and that of an internal rupture and implosion. He adds a fourth possibility, although not the most likely in his view, which is the future he would prefer, of a ’refoundation’ which, through a ‘crystalising core’ would render tangible an ambitious European political rebirth. (MT)
*** DIMITRIS KAIRIDIS, EVANTHIS CHATZIVASSILIOU, EVANGELOS VENIZELOS: La Grèce dans le monde. De nouveaux défis pour la politique étrangère et de sécurité grecque: des idées pour la reconstruction nationale. Editions Epikentro (9 rue Kamvounion, GR-54621 Thessalonica. Tel: (30-231) 0256146 – Fax: 0256148 – Internet: http://www.epikentro.gr ). 2017, 112 pp, €7. ISBN 978-960-458727-8.
This book reports on a debate organised by the Cercle des Idées to reconstruct Greek foreign and security policy. Three figureheads took part: Dimitris Kairidis, professor of international relations at Pantheon University, who discusses the theme ‘Greece and the crisis of the international liberal order: challenges, risks and strategy’; Evanthis Chatzivassiliou, professor of history and archaeology at Athens University, who speaks of Greece’s specific role in the world and the current international system; former deputy prime minister and foreign minister Evangelos Venizélos, who looks at the constants of Greece’s foreign and security policy since the fall of the colonels’ dictatorship. The three participants are in agreement with the following: ‘There is a new school now in Greece, the school of inactivity. It exists and it reigns. Many believe that time is on our side in Cyprus, Greco-Turkish relations, the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, many believe that, after all, time must be left to provide the solution. Do you know what that means in Cyprus in particular? It means partition of the inland and a war front between Cyprus and Turkey in the least favourable geographic and military conditions. Anyone who believes that the situation cannot get worse is not making a proper reading of history!’ (AKa)
*** LINA VENTOURA, DIMITRIS KARIDAS, GERASIMOS KOUZELIS (Eds.): Les frontières, les limites. Editions Nissos (14 rue Sarri, GR-10553 Athens. Tel/Fax: (30-210) 3250058 – Email: HYPERLINK "mailto:info@nissos.gr"info@nissos.gr – Internet: http://www.nissos.gr ). 2017, 356 pp, €25. ISBN 978-960-589-046-9.
At this start of the twenty-first century, the problem of borders and limits is still being raised, fuelled both by political and ideologial conflicts and by territorial demands and, sometimes, clashes. This development has led the scientific world to multiply its research into the territorial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic demonstrations of borders and various restriction-related states of tension and the meaning they have in today’s world. This entire issue is dealt with in this book by some thirty experts brought together by Prof. Lina Ventoura (who lectures in sociology and the history of migration at the University of the Pelopponese), researcher Dimitris Karidas (Critical Theory Institute of Berlin University) and Gerasimos Kouzelis, professor of sociology and epistemology of knowledge at Athens University. (AKa)