The Strategic Observatory of Latin America
Responsables: Oliver Dabène and Gaspard Estrada
The activities of the Strategic Observatory of Latin America began in December 2021. This Observatory, which is new in the French academic landscape, aims to nourish academic reflection on "the blind spot of French diplomacy," to use the expression of the historian Maurice Vaïsse. Indeed, if the share of research in political science devoted to Latin America has increased in recent years, this space remains an object of study still poorly addressed from the point of view of the interactions between politics and security, both in terms of the recomposition of the state and in terms of international issues.
However, if the region has seen its place recede in the major international debates due to its multiple crises - economic crisis, leadership crisis, democratic crisis -, it has become one of the main grounds for Sino-American strategic rivalry, given the rise of China's power in the region. The Covid-19 pandemic has only reinforced this dynamic. Hence the interest in examining these developments over the long term.
From this point of view, the research carried out in recent years at CERI through OPALC has made it possible to clear the way for this research agenda, thus making it possible to obtain the support of the Directorate General of International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS) of the French Ministry of Defense, which for the first time in its history decided to grant multi-year funding to such a project. Indeed, several doctoral theses dealing with the themes covered by the new Observatory have been carried out within the laboratory, notably on the question of mediation between organized crime, entrepreneurs and the State in Mexico, as well as on the relations between military power and policies to fight organized crime in Mexico and Brazil. In addition, CERI has regularly hosted in recent years specialists on defense and security issues in Latin America; the network thus formed will feed the work of the Observatory. Finally, many researchers working on these issues have come to CERI to present their analyses in the framework of the monthly seminar Los Últimos Jueves of OPALC.
Co-directed by Olivier Dabène and Gaspard Estrada, the Observatory will publish several notes (analytical notes, news notes, operational notes, prospective notes), with the assistance of the Sciences Po Cartography Workshop. Seminars and roundtables will be organized at CERI for three years. The results of this work will be available on this site, either through documents or podcasts.
These studies and scientific events will focus on three main issues: the Sino-American strategic rivalry, as well as the actions of other powers in Latin America (Russia, Turkey, Iran); the security tensions at work in the region and the facts generating vulnerabilities; the place of Latin America in the major international balances.
Thus, this Observatory aims to contribute to a better understanding, in all their complexity, of the realities of a Latin America in transformation.
