One – the Arctic – presents a number of challenges: military, energetic, climatic, economic and commercial. With claims that intersect and contradict, but try to engage in dialogue within a context of tempered multilateralism. Will the Arctic lead to the continuance of a model of multilateralism that is in poor shape or be the poster child for a better, jointly managed international community?

The other paints a completely different picture: developments in the Arab-Persian Gulf and the Levant. Public rivalries between regional powers that external, demonetised stakeholders fail to comprehend. The crisis that has Saudi Arabia and Qatar at loggerheads is nothing but a reflection of unstable oppositions, and a regional restructuring (between Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey…) whose dynamics escape us. All this in a region that continues to be strategically imperative for all global actors, including those in Asia.

Closer to home: the German elections in September 2017. It is not the name of the winner as much as her future room for manoeuvre that is unknown. Will Angela Merkel have the coalition that will allow her to make good decisions for Europe, with a French counterpart that is both supplicant… and expectant?

CASE FILE. THE ARCTIC: A STRATEGIC EXPLORATION

Introduction: The Geopolitical Dynamics of the Arctic, by Barbara Kunz

Understanding Arctic Rivalries, by Mikkel Runge Olesen

The Arctic Council, the Strength of Weak Ties, by Camille Escudé

Russia’s Strategic Objectives in the Arctic, by Katarzyna Zysk

COUNTER ANALYSIS

QUESTIONS ABOUT SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia: the War of Three that Did not Take Place, by Jacques-Jocelyn Paul

Saudi Arabia: False Friend or True Enemy?, by Pierre Conesa

NEWS

Review of the Gulf Crisis of 2017, by Rachid Chaker

German Elections: the Day after Tomorrow, by Hans Stark (read the article in French)

The African National Congress or the Difficulty of Exercising Power, by Victor Magnani

BAROMETERS

France's Nuclear Arsenal: What Sort of Renewal?, by Corentin Brustlein (read the article in French)

Back to the East of Suez? The British in the Indian Ocean, by Jean-Loup Samaan

Obamacare: Creation, Evaluation, Future, by Thomas Rapp

The Results of the European Neighbourhood Policy, by Jakub Lachert

FREE SPEECHES

Food Sovereignty or Peoples' Right to Feed Themselves, by Said Alahyane

BOOK REVIEWS

Le Miroir de Damas. Syrie, notre histoire, by Jean-Pierre Filiu

Syrie : une guerre pour rien, by Frédéric Pichon

Syrie : en finir avec une guerre sans fin, by Michel Duclos

by Denis Bauchard