2024, A Year Ahead for CERI
All of us at CERI send you our best wishes. May 2024 be a year of knowledge and intellectual adventure for us all!
For CERI, this new year is already shaping up to be a period of significant change, marked by the election of a new Board and a new leadership team. CERI is taking a major step forward by welcoming, for the first time, a woman as Director and, to reflect the human and scientific diversity of the laboratory, a trio in its management team. Our commitment reflects both the continuity of a tradition that has seen seven directors since 1952, and a new dynamic. Laurence Louër (FNSP), an Arabist specialising in identity politics in the Middle East and whose research focuses on the changing relationship between labour and the political order in the Gulf monarchies, and Hugo Meijer (CNRS), a specialist in American foreign policy and European defence policy, have been appointed deputy directors for academic affairs.
Alain Dieckhoff, Director of Research at the CNRS, has led our lab since 2014, together with Ewa Kulesza, Executive Director, and a remarkable research support team. Over his ten years in office, several major global events have shaken up our core reference points. Let’s recall some of them: Nelson Mandela’s death, the terrorist attacks in France in 2015 and 2016, the COP21 agreements in Paris, Brexit, Donald Trump’s presidency, the pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong, the detention of our colleagues Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal in Tehran, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Yemen, the Beirut port explosion, the fall of Kabul and, of course, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the ongoing tragedy arising from the war between Hamas and Israël. Since 2013, while continuing his research on the Israeli political system, Alain has been working on the transformations of nationalism and populism. He also co-founded the International Observatory of Religion and the Chair for the study of religion.
Nearly half of the world’s population is eligible to vote in elections this year. The repercussions will more often than not extend beyond the borders of the countries concerned. The presidential and parliamentary elections just held in Taiwan are an eloquent illustration of this phenomenon. At the same time, a busy international calendar heralds a series of multilateral meetings in which the “Global South” will play a leading role: Russia will chair the BRICS for the year, South Africa will lead the G20, and the third South summit of the Group of 77+China has just been held in Uganda. At the same time, Paris will regain its status as world capital during the Olympic Games, just before the United Nations World Summit of Future in September.
In 2024, CERI will reaffirm its commitment to its founding values of academic freedom, scientific rigour and the decentring of perspectives and methods, together with reforms in governance, scientific outreach and the professional integration of early-career researchers. We invite you to keep informed of our publications in our journals (Critique internationale, Politique africaine, Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences/PARISS and European Review of International Studies/ERIS), our book series and our digital publications (Les Etudes du CERI, Les Dossiers du CERI, Recherches internationales by Karthala, Les Grandes études internationales by Fayard, L’Enjeu mondial by the Presses de Sciences Po and International Relations and Political Economy by Palgrave) at CERI/lab, all of which are prominently featured on our website.
Join us at our events, and look out for the forthcoming launch of our Regional programmes, as well as the future International Relations and Planetary Studies Institute!
Navigating the post-truth age, stay informed through research and remain connected to its values!
Prof. Stéphanie Balme,
Director
Linkedin @Sciences Po-CERI
