Best wishes from CERI for 2025
Dear friends of CERI,
As we enter the year 2025 and the second quarter of the century, we extend our best wishes to you. May 2025 be filled with joy and health for every one of you!
This symbolic moment reminds us that current events are embedded in the evolution of historical dynamics, shaped by continuity and change. Let us remember that Vladimir Putin's election marked the year 2000 as President of Russia, the death of Syrian President Hafez el-Assad, the onset of the Second Intifada, and the election of George W. Bush to the White House. Those events reflected the global upheavals of the time and foreshadowed the challenges we face today. Since its founding in 1952, CERI has sought to analyze such events by conducting fundamental research that is both innovative and critical.
Providing a comprehensive account of the rich scientific activities of the entire CERI community in 2024 would be challenging. The past year marked a significant turning point, with a change in leadership and the launch of a new LabSem (General Laboratory Seminar) focused on what we call “authoritarian variations.” This ambitious interdisciplinary seminar examines the various facets of authoritarianism, and their manifestations in the political and economic spheres, in mechanisms of repression and propaganda, in new technologies and their modes of governance, in infringements on academic freedom, or in mobilizations by civil society at both local and international levels. The year began with an exceptional opening event at the Guimet Museum, with a remarkable keynote lecture from Prof. Rita Abrahamsen. Our colleague delivered an inspiring presentation on the transnational dynamics of the far-right, tracing its trajectory from apartheid in South Africa to the spread of "great replacement" theories in the so-called Global North from the 1950s to the present day.
Despite increasingly complex working conditions resulting from the current crises and fragmentation of the world, we continue our fieldwork, always pursuing data and analyses that are closely aligned with the societies we study. In 2024, we made a significant contribution to the production and dissemination of scientific research, through the publication of 37 books, 74 contributions to collective books, and nearly 150 academic articles, along with hundreds of interviews in national and international media. Moreover, we are pleased to have been selected as one of two exclusive research teams to be part of the France 2030 “Human and Social Sciences Research Programs”. CERI’s respective contributions to this program aim to explore the role of the diversity of the Global South in the reconfiguration of the world and the interactions between religion and politics in comparative contexts.
For CERI, the coming year promises to be just as dynamic in terms of research. We are excited to welcome new internationally recognized researchers to our laboratory. We will be joined by Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, an expert in offshore economies in Africa and Asia-Africa relations, and Béatrice Châteauvert-Gagnon, who specializes in international relations, gender, and discrimination. Further recruitment will strengthen our research areas, particularly on Russia's foreign policy, comparative politics in Latin America, and ocean and coastline policies.
CERI will continue its comparative and interdisciplinary approach to global dynamics, aiming to clarify realities that are increasingly difficult to comprehend. Whether it be Donald Trump's return to power, the establishment of the new European Commission, the new governments emerging from the global electoral year of 2024, or the assertion of China’s techno-nationalism, we will continue to analyze these developments through a perspective that articulates the past with the present, and the universal with the particular.
We will also continue our efforts to make this research accessible to an increasingly wide audience. Among our initiatives is the Ciné-CERI film club, in partnership with L'Entrepôt, inaugurated on January 7 with a screening of the Grand Prix winner from the last Cannes Film Festival, All We Imagine as Light. This exciting film club will organize screenings and debates throughout the year. We hope to see many of you at our upcoming sessions!
Finally, in the face of growing challenges from post-truth movements, and attacks on scientific knowledge, your support for the vital principle of academic freedom and critical thinking is more valuable than ever. Together, inspired by the communicative energy of the “active pessimists” dear to Albert Camus, let us continue to promote nuance, complexity, and the long-term nature of research work.
With our deepest gratitude and best wishes for 2025,
Prof. Stéphanie Balme
On behalf of CERI
