Cosmopolis

A review of Cosmopolitics

2017/2-3

Introduction

Florian Aumond returns to The Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which can be seen as new case of transnational order. The Olympic banner united a number of athletes irrespective of their nationalities, embodying the emergence of a new category of citizens, a “cosmopolympism  » which contrasts with the state system, an inverted figure of citizenry made of citizens of nowhere.

Jean-Jacques Wunenburger offers a reinterpretation of intercultural relations seen as identities, through a hermeneutic approach opposed to the conventional binary thinking and open to the paradoxical nature of any relationship. This view implies a third term, without which the interplay between similarities and dissimilarities cannot be accounted for. The One and the Other are no longer defined with reference to some pre-existing identity, but take part in a complex game of écarts (gaps) where there is no radical otherness linked to a presupposed universality.

In his essay on “the return of politics”, Lucio Levi questions the antiquated disciplinary division between the study of domestic politics and that of international politics. The state-centric approach based on sovereign states may be a transitory trait of political history, while the European federation of nation states can be seen as a landmark to a pacified form of government after the city-state and the nation-state eras.

Nicole Morgan deals with the rhetorical forms of current political discourse, pervaded with lies considered an art using means of seduction. The impact of such usages today reaches out to the whole world and contaminates all areas. They address issues through all ways and channels, whether oral or iconic, pragmatic or symbolic. The efficiency of digital technologies works subliminally, to the point that they greatly attenuate or distort the litteral or apparent meaning of the message.

Pierre Calame explores the new ressources provided by the « rel       ational atlas » he has designed, whose purpose is criss-crossing  a set of concepts in all directions. More than a static picture of its elements, the atlas also represents their complex interrelations thanks to a specialized software package, a novel way to move beyond the standard file trees used in conventional databases. The atlas incorporates cultural and linguistic features of registered references, as well as the complex and systemic processes that link them together.

Haider A. Khan discusses the reassessment of the US grand strategy within a turbulent world context, following the demise of the “American Century” in a unipolar system. As the largest continent, Asia is more than a regional stake and to a large extent holds the key to the global future. However, a somehow parochial approach to a complex set of shifting [..backgrounds, a huge financial deficit and the US dependence on its creditors, especially China, considerably blunt US dominance in world affairs.

Botiagne Marc Essis makes a critical analysis of the political, social and economic plight of Côte d’Ivoire in a post-crisis period, with an emphasis on governance understood as distinct from government policies insofar as the former is confronted with a number of actors linked to the market or to social and cultural components of civil society. The author shows that the current governance model has consistently been below targets and does not meet the human needs and the social and cultural criteria required for success in sustainable development.