Our bi-monthly supplement devoted to books and periodicals, concerning politics and economics, focusing in particular on European integration, as well as on international policy, is also available to non-subscribers, except for the latest edition, which is reserved for subscribers.
Les valeurs de l’Europe
This essay, the outcome of conferences at the Collège de France, is particularly dense read, but no less fascinating for that. Taking inspiration from Hannah Arendt, lecturer in political theory at the Free University of Brussels, Justine Lacroix goes in search of the European values. Steering a course between theory and practice, the history of ideas and contemporary realities, she takes us on a journey to revisit the meaning of European values and gain a [...]
La défense européenne à l’heure de la guerre en Ukraine
In his latest book, Nicolas Gros-Verheyde, editor-in-chief of the online media outlet Bruxelles 2 (B2) and specialist in defence issues, comments on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the reactions of the EU and its member states and its consequences for European politics.
After prefaces by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, the author delivers a [...]
De kolonisten van de Wetstraat
The title, which takes its inspiration from the board game “Settlers of Catan”, hides a well-documented investigation into the funding system of Belgian and European political parties. This investigation takes the reader the full length of the rue de la Loi in Brussels, from the country’s federal and Flemish parliaments to the European quarter. The book highlights the enormous disparity between the rules in place in the Belgian system and the European [...]
D’une autre Europe
In this work, the historian Jean-Yves Potel takes us on a journey to a central Europe which he has travelled at length, for instance having served as cultural adviser to the French Embassy in Warsaw and then as representative of the Shoah Memorial in Poland. It takes the form of a series of meetings, conversations, personal statements and portraits, reflecting the aspirations, frustrations and fears of this “other Europe” (our translation throughout). The backdrop [...]
Le financement des biens publics mondiaux
As always, this issue of the Revue d’économie financière offers readers a broad panorama of the debates, challenges and future prospects of a critical subject, this time the management of global public goods. It goes into such depth that this summary cannot hope to cover all the issues dealt with in it.
Charlotte Gardes-Landolfini (IMF) starts out by reminding us that the world is facing an unprecedented “polycrisis” that is “affecting [...]
Éducation et formation : les apports de l’Union européenne
In this trilogy, Renaud Denuit takes us on a journey into the very bowels of the European institutions and the meanderings of its procedures, in pursuit of a subject – education and training – that has had far less media attention than many others, related protests and strikes notwithstanding. A very important subject all the same, as it is the key to personal fulfilment and the basis of creativity and innovation. Because [...]
Le retour des temps barbares
“An ill wind is blowing on the world” (our translation throughout). This is the opening sentence of this work by Thierry Wolton, in which he delves into the fall of communism and the weight of the Soviet legacy in the foundations of the worsening international relations situation we are currently living through.
The war in Ukraine is the “heritage of a buildup of lost opportunities over the last 40 years. From support for Gorbachev when he aspired to [...]
L’Europe superpuissance
In this publication, the Belgian political scientist Marc De Vos, founder of the Flemish think tank Itinera, analyses the way the European Union has been transformed by the succession of crises it has lived through.
Before developing his three main hypotheses, the author paints a highly optimistic picture of Europe for his readers: “a true colossus made up of 27 member states and 450 million souls, the European Union is the third-largest economic power and, [...]
L’accélération de l’histoire
“What is playing out at the moment is [the] desire [of the Europeans] to act and to remain in history at a time when the global configuration is becoming fundamentally unfavourable to them”, writes the historian and director of the Institut Français Des Relations Internationales (Ifri), Thomas Gomart, at the start of this essay, setting the tone for a highly engaged and proactive work, which shines a light on the geostrategic movements at play in [...]
Les saccageurs de l’espace
Space continues to be a mystery, even to those who explore it. How, then, can we ever hope to understand what it is really about? Reading this book, which is passionate, clear and well documented, is a good start. Raphaël Chevrier, a doctor of physics, works in the space industry (MaiaSpace) and takes us on a fascinating journey through space and time with a passion that is contagious. With flashbacks retracing the major staging posts in the “conquest” of [...]