Algerian War, violence, wars, history of water and Antiquity. Overview of the books of the week.
Mechanism of violence
Myriam Benraad, Conflict mechanism, cycles of violence and resolutionThe Blue Rider, €21.
Popular works that have outlined a theory of conflict are legion. But the essay by political scientist Myriam Benraad, a specialist in the Middle East, attempts a comparative analysis by taking side roads. Objective: to understand and make people understand the sources and meaning of contemporary conflicts in the light of History and the human sciences. This is the challenge of this didactic synthesis to offer a deciphering of the complexity of conflicts which respond to their own logic, even their own rationality. The book is divided into three axes: before the conflict, during the conflict and after the conflict. Each party intends to put an end to preconceived ideas as is the case, for example, with causes which always produce the same effects, the religious factor, the trigger for the first part. Regarding the course of a war, the author seeks to answer the following questions: “the actors in the conflict pursue rational goals”, “it is illusory to want to estimate the duration of a conflict” or even “the escalation could have been avoided”; etc. Are recent conflicts causing fewer victims? Are alliances more fluctuating? When resolved, the conflict becomes dormant? Is reconstruction a condition for overcoming a conflict? All of this is covered in this remarkable work which is destined to become a valuable support for undergraduate teachers. We will also note the publication in paperback of the excellent Geopolitics of anger from the same publisher.
Tigrane Yegavian
A history of water
Agathe Euzen, Claire Marc, Understand everything (or almost) about waterÉditions du CNRS, €19.
When we talk about water, I always remember this film by Marcel Pagnol, Manon of the sourcesin its 1952 version, but also its more modern version (1986) with Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil and Yves Montand. It is also difficult, when you come from the Mediterranean world, not to physically feel the impact of water, a source of life that you also have to know how to tame.
Publications on the subject are obviously very numerous, and they allow this question to be approached from different angles. The environmental issue is obviously important, especially since the availability of directly accessible fresh water is increasingly difficult. What is becoming scarce arouses desire, to the point that for several decades now, particularly when we deal with the Near East and the Middle East with a water war.
This work is presented in a very original form, combining in the body of the text numerous illustrations and numerous diagrams, which make the content perfectly accessible. Claire Marc, who is the co-author with Agathe Euzen of these 130 pages, is presented as scientific mediator and graphic facilitator. From this point of view his action in this work proves particularly enlightening. The subject on water is broken down into 20 questions, presented in a very didactic way by addressing, for example, the water cycle with human interactions, the question of the commodification of the resource, but also the wars of water.
The performance of the two authors is also verified when we address complex issues, such as water technologies or its management. If we had to express a reservation, perhaps we should have addressed in the water wars, its use as a weapon, which the war in Ukraine was able to show, during the various actions carried out on the dams. Generational effect no doubt, but the author of these lines always remembers the actions of bombing the dikes carried out by the American air force during the Vietnam War. Water was already indeed a weapon of war.
However, this work proves particularly useful for different audiences. Its easy access thanks to the illustrations undoubtedly targets a young audience. It should be recommended for purchase by middle and high school documentation centers. It will also be very valuable in a media library. But beyond that, and because almost all of the questions relating to water are addressed, it can allow candidates preparing for the human sciences options for army competitions to have precise information very quickly and above all contextualized on this subject.
Bruno Modica
Ukraine
Pierre Lellouche, Gears – The Ukrainian War and the turning of the worldÉditions Odile Jacob, €23.90.
Affirming his convictions forcefully from the first pages, Pierre Lellouche, former Secretary of State for European Affairs and President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, seeks to break through the thick fog that has covered the Ukrainian sky since 2022. Governments, on both sides, have lied, continue to lie, and end up believing their lies themselves. In an infernal spiral, they shape our perception of the conflict and transform its own nature. The consequences for international stability could be disastrous, while a world upheaval is underway, from which China could well emerge as the big winner.
Sparta versus Athens
Manoel Rodrigues de Oliveira, Sparta vs. Athens – 510-354Éditions Passés compounds, €23.
We know the opposition of Sparta and Athens and their confrontation in the Peloponnesian War. But what image do we have of these two powers? History remembers Athens as the century of Pericles and the birth of democracy. As for Sparta, it would be a warlike, conservative and imperialist nation. In a serious and original work, the author takes the opposite view of French historiography and the myths it has created. Note the title, which reverses Thucydides’ trap: Sparta versus Athensand not Athens vs. Sparta.
Atlas Algeria
Guy Pervillé, Atlas of the Algerian War – From conquest to independenceÉditions Otherwise, €24.
Enlightening maps to understand Algeria through the striking heterogeneity of its territory, both physical and human. History has a lot to learn from geography, because it is its field of action. In this atlas we will learn to distinguish between cities and countryside, mountains and plains, coastline and interior, to better immerse ourselves in the scenery and understand the dynamics at work in the conflict which ended the colonization of Algeria. .
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