“The enemy who designates us” means that we become the enemy of others as soon as they choose to consider us as such, regardless of our intentions or our protests.” Carl SCHMITT.
It’s 1965 at the Sorbonne. A young philosopher, Julien Freund, is sitting behind a table. In front of him, several great masters of French philosophy are listening to him, with a mixture of interest and concern. We need to return to his mysterious phrase: “The enemy will prevent you from cultivating your garden”, to understand the world into which the presidency of Donald Trump has dramatically plunged us.
And Julien Freund goes on to say to a distinguished member of the jury: “You think that it is you who designates the enemy, like all pacifists. And so, as long as we don’t want an enemy, we won’t have one! But it is the enemy who designates you, and if it wants you to be its enemy, you are!
This is the starting point of this fifth volume of Le Grand Continent, which once again brings together leading specialists and decisive voices to help us navigate this geopolitical moment. If we feel so dizzy in the face of the current upheavals, it is perhaps because we still refuse to take into account a massive dimension of the contemporary world: China. The authors devote an exclusive report to it by publishing – often for the first time in French – renowned Sinologists and key Xi Jinping doctrinaires who openly and authoritatively state why and how the West “will lose”.
“We are currently experiencing changes that are unprecedented in a century, and it is we who, together, are at the origin of these changes,” President Xi told Vladimir Putin.
Thus, all the converging forces risk subjecting the European liberal democracies to a fate not unlike that of the Florentine Republic in the time of Machiavelli, who said to the Florentine citizens: “Do not be deceived by the hundred years you have lived and in which you have kept yourselves free, ….for you will see that it is impossible for you to safeguard your freedom today in the manner of yesterday.”
Within this framework of reflection and action, Le Grand Continent strives to provide, in addition to analytical tools, some means of learning to resist predators. While the outlines of the threat appear, at this stage, terribly clear, a response commensurate with the times is struggling to emerge.
Giuliano da Empoli, with contributions from Michael Albertus, Robert-Henri Berger, Emily Feng, Stacie Goddard, Beeban Kidron, Phil Klay, Oleksandra Matviitchouk, Abraham Newman, Minxin Pei, Paul Saffo, Afra Wang, Dan Wang and Meredith Whittaker, draws a quantified map of the trends that are already shaping a new industrial and technological hegemony.
The China dossier, under the scientific direction of David Ownby, includes contributions from Lu Feng, Wang Huning, Jiang Shigong and Zhao Xiaozhuo, who argues that no service-based power has ever won against technologically well-equipped adversaries. This confirms the Chinese military adage that the best victory is the one obtained without having fought a battle.
The contents of the book are as follows: Introduction by Giuliano da Empoli and Gilles Gressani; Stacie Goddard and Abraham Newman, Neo-Royalism: The New World Order of Donald J. Trump; Phil Klay, The Digital Colosseum: The Geopolitics of Brainrot; Meredith Whittaker, The Digital Infrastructure of Sovereignty Depends on Our Choices; Michael Albertus, Recolonisation: The Return of Empire and Grounding in the 21stCentury; Oleksandra Matviïtchouk, The Strength of Our Struggle: Dan Wang; An Engineer State: Figures and Trends of the New Chinese Hegemony: Minxin Pei; Emily Feng, Totalitarian Modernisation: At the Origins of Xi Jinping’s Regime; “Let the Red Flowers”: The Problem of Chinese Identity: Wang Huning; America Against America: Selected Excerpts: Lu Feng; Industrial Maximalism: The Economic Doctrine of the Chinese Century: Zhao Xiaozhuo; The Chinese Plan to Take Taiwan: Jiang Shigong; The Empire and the World Order: Paul Saffo; The New Grotius Moment: Beeban Kidron; AI Generation: Notes for the Lost Children of the Digital Age: Robert-Henri Berger; Winning the War: For a New Army: Afterword by Afra Wang; The Awakening of Lingao: Presentation of the authors.
Le Grand Continent, a journal that was created online and is driven by a new generation, has established itself as the leading platform for strategic, political and intellectual debate on a continental scale.
This very clear “albeit technical” book should be read by anyone interested in the future of our liberal democracy, particularly in this six-month period that will lead France and Europe to make crucial choices.
As JF Kennedy said, it will not be easy, but it is because it is difficult that we must choose this path!
Dominique CHESNEAU