Editorial
Marc Luyckx Ghisi explores the various imaginable futures based on industrial or agricultural technologies, human trafficking or recent or emerging scientific knowledge, as long as politicians and the private players who make them available open the way. Terrestrial or extraterrestrial, the instruments available will feed the thirst for humanity or violent domination, towards an enchanted world or infernal chaos, depending on the goodwill of each party.
Cristina Popa Tache, with my contribution, analyses the risks of conflicts generated by climate change and their effects on international law. The cross-border effects of climate change require both a graduated approach to security in emergencies and global cooperation adapted to disasters in order to avoid destabilising vulnerable regions, undermining humanitarian standards and violating international law, which is what the EU is trying to do through its security policy.
Haider A. Khan returns to the question of the famous ‘Thucydides trap’, in terms of the ideological and economic competition between the world’s two leading powers, but also in terms of its geopolitical consequences in the Indo-Pacific region. From a scientific, realistic and historical perspective, the author assesses the risks of militarisation of the conflict, but also the possibilities for a peaceful resolution through negotiation between the parties.
François Misser analyses the flaws in the DRC regime, which has been reduced to a state of severe underdevelopment despite its immense mining, hydroelectric and agricultural resources. The endemic corruption that undermines an army incapable of providing security and controlling the rebel militias that are spreading in the east of the country, and the impunity resulting from the ineffectiveness of the judiciary, are leading to the erosion of human rights, economic activity, the environment and biodiversity, all contradictions that population growth will not be able to resolve.
Pierre Jacquemot presents the core of his latest book, devoted to the food challenges facing contemporary Africa, where population growth, climate change, environmental degradation and dependence on imports are threatening living conditions. African governments are therefore called upon to allow the many local initiatives that are taking place to flourish.
Haider A. Khan concludes his book with a vision of an ‘African renaissance’ that cannot be achieved simply by replicating imported models, whether neo-liberal or the old East Asian model. The crises arising from acculturation, the worsening ecological crisis and the constant draining of mining and other surpluses require governments to come up with an appropriate African model that engages all components of society and fosters inter-African cooperation.
Mariana Thieriot Loisel underlines the new relationship between humanity and its creations in engineering, computing and automation, where the dangers due to the human factor are dealt with by engineers using transdisciplinary methods with a view to democratising the new techniques. Scientific research and training require significant investment from a humanist perspective.
Fernand Vincent takes up an old but still relevant article on the sometimes negative evolution of international development aid, due to the bureaucracy and conditions imposed by the countries of the North on the countries of the South. Aid only reaches the populations concerned in small proportion to the sums committed, because of the cost of expertise, equipment, multi-level project management and evaluation.
The interview with Déo Namujimbo by the I-Dialogos association focuses on the current situation in the DRC, the largest French-speaking country in the world, which receives little press coverage despite the tragic events that are ravaging it – natural disasters, human rights violations and murderous attacks by armed gangs – a country that is also in conflict with Rwanda, with the complicity of multinationals and the indifference of the international community.
The last section contains reviews of the following books:
Bruno Colmant, Une brûlante inquiétude, préface de Ségolène Royal, Mardaga, 2024 ;
Ndubuisi Idejiora-Kalu, Engineering as Applied Social & Physical Sciences, independently published, 2024:
Hubert Landier, Polycellular organisation, for a transdsciplinary appproach, Adjuris publishing, 2024;
Alain Depaulis, Naissance de la transdisciplinarité. Préface de Pascal Roggero, L’Harmattan, 2024.
Paul Ghils