Vis a Vis

If the State of the Union Address is an annual opportunity for the American President to showcase his performance and his vision of the future to Congress and the American people, the Midterm elections are an opportunity for the American population to express their views on how the country and the President are doing. This year,…

As many economists, political scientists, and policy makers reflect on growing economic inequalities dividing world populations today, a question often arises: how did we get here? Why is it that such significant wealth gaps grew over the years, both within countries and among different regions of the world? Many experts turn to history for answers,…

85 years ago, Louis Leprince Ringuet created the first research lab at École Polytechnique – a physics lab dedicated to research on the atom, cosmic rays and subatomic particles. Today, École Polytechnique boasts 23 research centers staffed by 1600 researchers in fields as diverse as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and social sciences. Most recently,…

Winston Churchill famously said: “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Today, almost four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many people, throughout the world, are baffled by the long-term goals of the Russian regime and by its internal workings. Historically, France provided a successful model for understanding Russia. Much of…

One of the mottos of the Enlightenment was “sapere aude”: Dare to know. With this motto, Enlightenment thinkers like Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau rejected fanaticism, conventional thinking, and, in many cases, the authority of the Church, submission to religious principles and belief in the afterlife. As they faced death, therefore, it seemed natural that these…

Over the last few decades, Sciences Po has significantly increased its footprint in research, becoming one of the world’s leading institutions in social science research. The Sciences Po ecosystem is structured around five disciplines: law, economics, history, political science, and sociology. Research priorities include: the analysis of social policy; economic transformations; social inequalities; environmental transition;…

Thirty years ago, the Beijing Declaration charted a path to achieve gender equality worldwide. Since then, some progress was achieved. Girls are surpassing boys in school completion, women are gaining seats in parliament, and nearly 100 countries have scrapped discriminatory laws. But poverty, hunger, conflict, climate change, and backlash against women rights are eroding progress…

Debates about climate change and the environment often focus, understandably, on risk evaluation, mitigation, and adaptation. Important research is dedicated to technical innovations like carbon capture or renewable energy; adaptive strategies to protect biodiversity; or financial solutions to bolster sustainable investment. This work is important, of course. But in order to get to the root…

In 2027, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Big Bang theory, first proposed by the Belgivan priest and astronomer Georges Lemaître. In the last 100 years, our knowledge and understanding of the universe has been radically transformed. Back in 1917, Einstein still believed in a static universe. Then came Edwin Hubble, who demonstrated,…

Politics, today, seems to be divided by ideology, as much as it is by identity. Our political leanings are determined, not only by our particular vision of the common good, but by who we are, where we come from, and the groups we belong to. One way to understand the degree to which identity shapes…

By all accounts, the AI revolution is upon us and, although we know it will transform our world, its long-term impact – on jobs, on education, on privacy, on our political life – can only be surmised with some degree of prudence. While applications of artificial intelligence in the worlds of transport, communications, and medicine…

Every year, 1.3 million babies are born with congenital heart disease worldwide. One third of them need an artificial valve implant. These complex heart surgeries save hundreds of thousands of babies’ lives every year. But valve implants are not a perfect solution. New valves need to be implanted every few years, which requires multiple operations…

When the French writer Marcel Proust died at the age of 51 more than a century ago, many obituaries highlighted the fact that his mother was Jewish. But Proust’s relationship with his Jewish side was complex and many critics and readers of his masterwork, In Search of Lost Time, perceive signs of self-hatred and even antisemitism…

When we think about works of philosophy, sociology, history, or economics, we often think of rigorous, methodically argued tomes written in arid, dispassionate prose. Social science enquiry aims to deliver clear, objective knowledge about the human world, not beautifully written narratives. In fact, we tend to be suspicious of social science and humanities works that…

In June 2024, the French Far Right party, the National Rally came in first at the European elections, way ahead of the party of President Macron. This sent shockwaves in the French political world and Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly and call for early legislative elections. On June 30th, the National Rally won 33% of the…

Over the last 80 years, research has been at the core of scientific and technological progress in our societies; and universities have played and continue to play a critical role in this process. At Columbia University, research offers a critical pathway to build new knowledge and practical solutions that impact people’s lives in significant ways.…

Over the last decades, the world of cinema has gone through profound transformations. The advent of streaming platforms, the COVID pandemic, and the introduction of AI technology at multiple stages of film production all contributed to create a new landscape which raises many questions about cinema in the future. Will cinema theaters thrive again or…

On April 15th, 2019, the world saw in awe the Notre Dame Cathedral ravaged by flames. As the fire spread through the beloved Paris landmark, toxic smoke spewed billions of particles of lead from the collapsing roof and spire. In the weeks that followed the disaster, experts and civil society groups raised the alarm about…

In Woody Allen’s 2011 movie Midnight in Paris, Gil, a young Hollywood screenwriter and aspiring novelist, played by Owen Wilson, is transported back to the 1920s Paris. Every night, he meets his heroes, Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein. He encounters a cast of artists like Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dáli, Man Ray. Soon,…

In most areas of our lives, artificial intelligence is promising to bring revolutionary change – from medicine to transport, from education to food production. Even creative industries – filmmaking, music, and the visual arts – will not be spared. We are all aware that we are part of a huge experiment: indeed, we contribute, willy-nilly,…

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we work, the way we stay informed, the way we interact with others. It is also set to transform the way we move around in cities. In the air, electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles – eVTOLs – (or air taxis) are already being tested, promising to take passengers…

Over the last few years, the rise of artificial intelligence has been reshaping many areas of our lives. From healthcare to law, from self-driving cars to self-written novels, AI promises to transform our relationship with the world and remodel our interactions with our fellow human beings. In the area of climate research, AI is proving to be a powerful tool. In particular, the use of AI to develop powerful predictive models – even for such elusive and seemingly random phenomena as precipitations – can provide scientists and policy makers with tools that can help mitigate the effects of climate change and generate strategies to adapt to its consequences.

Since the storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021, there have been growing fears about the risk of political violence in the United States. Efforts to cast doubt on the results of the election, combined with the spread of inflammatory rhetoric and increased polarization on social media, represent serious threats, not only to civility, but…

Today, the average American teen spends 7 hours and 22 minutes looking at screens each day (an increase of 30% in the last 10 years). At the same time, 7 out of 10 teens say they often or sometimes feel more peaceful when they don’t have their smartphone. The surgeon-general recently called for a warning label on social…

Since September 11th 2001, there have been close to 150 Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe. But in order to understand the phenomenon of jihadism, one has to look beyond the attacks themselves. The periods of high tide, justifiably, grab public and media attention. But we need to focus on jihadist networks at periods of low tide…

Today, March 4th 2024, France becomes the first country in the world to enshrine the right to abortion in its Constitution. In the United States, by contrast, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, and ruled that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, sending legal and social aftershocks throughout the…

To mark Black History Month, Vis A Vis spoke to Maboula Soumahoro, one of the leading transatlantic thinkers on race, racism and the African Diaspora. While French and American societies struggle against racism, intolerance and discrimination take different forms on each side of the Atlantic. The French republican tradition emphasizes “laïcité” (or secularism) and color-blindness,…

As the United States embarks on a new election cycle, Vis A Vis is looking back on the Obama Presidency for insights on the challenges the country is now facing and how we got here. Last spring saw the launch of the Obama Presidency oral history, an archive of over 400 interviews with Obama cabinet…

According to many scientists and historians, we have entered a new historical period: the age of the Anthropocene. For the first time in history, as a result of climate change, humans are altering the makeup of planet Earth. In this episode of Vis A Vis, history professor François Hartog and Frédérique Aït-Touati, historian of modern science,…

Public debate today often focuses on uncertainties about the future: what to do about climate change, how to prevent the next pandemic, how to cope with technological revolutions? But many issues that divide societies also have to do with the past. How do we ensure continuity with the values that have shaped us? How should…

This episode delves into a critical examination of how the legal system is increasingly becoming a frontline battleground in the fight against climate change. In a conversation that covers the impact of climate-related court decisions on governments and corporations, the potential outcomes of landmark cases like Juliana v. the United States, the legal obligations towards…

There is no denying the fact that social media and the Internet have the power to inform, educate, spread knowledge and create new pathways of activism. At the same time, the online world is full of deep, dark spaces. Fake news, misinformation, cyber-harassment and hate speech proliferate. They endanger the social fabric of our communities. They also threaten our democracies. European Union-imposed regulations have attempted, for some time, to address hate speech and protect individuals’ privacy. The latest regulation – the Digital Services Act – was adopted in the spring of 2022 and will force social media companies to moderate content on their platforms. Can online regulation be effective? Will it offer protection from disinformation or will it, as some critics argue, stifle freedom of expression? In order to tackle these issues, Vis A Vis invited Columbia University’s Anya Schiffrin and Julia Cagé, professor at Sciences Po in Paris.

Today, more than ever, climate change and its effects are in the news. One the one hand, what we learn is a constant cause for alarm: the number and the intensity of hurricanes is on the rise; forests the world over are being decimated by wildfires; and communities in low lying lands (like Bangladesh and Pakistan) are devastated by floods. Many countries are not keeping up with their carbon-zero commitments. But perhaps we should also draw comfort from news coverage on climate: it’s a sign that the threat of climate change is being taken seriously by an increasingly large part of the population. And there are some positive developments, too. The US is back in the Paris Agreement. The COP 27 recently led to a breakthrough on “loss and damage” funding to support developing countries suffering the worst effects of climate change. So, does this amount to a real shift? Have we finally reached a tipping point in our collective determination to fight climate change? Will historians of the future say: the 2020s was…

In the wake of current debates on racism and racial discrimination in the US and Europe, the question of reparations for slavery is gaining renewed interest. In her book Faire justice de l’irréparable, (Justice As a Response to the Irreparable), Magali Bessone, Professor of Philosophy at Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, explains that the French abolition of slavery in 1848 did not put an end to economic exploitation, nor did it generate political and economic equality for formerly enslaved people. Similarly, in the United States, promises of compensation made to formerly enslaved people after the civil war were not kept. On both sides of the Atlantic, the issue of reparations for slavery is a source of controversy: who should be compensated? What kind of compensation should be envisaged? On what basis? To mark Black History Month, Vis A Vis is featuring a conversation with Professor Magali Bessone, the author of several books on theories of justice, racism and slavery reparations – among them, Faire justice de…

As our societies in Europe and America struggle with economic inequality, police violence and social injustice, it is quite clear that we are still dealing with the long-term after effects of colonialism and historic racism. This power imbalance is visible in the cultures we inhabit and the languages we speak. Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, half are endangered and may disappear by the end of the century. In fact, we are losing one language every two weeks. How do we ensure not only that languages survive, but that no one language rules over the others? How can languages interact on a basis of mutual respect rather than domination and supremacy? In this new episode of Vis A Vis, I speak to Columbia philosophy professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne, who has long thought about these issues. In his latest book, De langue à langue: L’hospitalité de la traduction(From language to language: The hospitality of translation), he describes translation as an antidote to colonialism and to the asymmetric…

Every year, 1.3 million babies are born with congenital heart disease worldwide. One third of them need an artificial valve implant. These complex heart surgeries save hundreds of thousands of babies’ lives every year. But valve implants are not a perfect solution. New valves need to be implanted every few years, which requires multiple operations that have a deep impact on these children’s quality of life. In this episode of Vis A Vis, we discuss a pioneering technique currently being explored to improve operations on children’s hearts. This technique involves the creation of artificial heart valves that expand as the child’s heart grows, which will significantly cut down the number of operations a child has to undergo. This innovation is being developed by David Kalfa, Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the Pediatric Heart Valve Center at Columbia University; and Abdul Barakat, AXA Professor at the Hydrodynamics Laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique and co-Chair of Biomedical…

Since being elected Prime Minister in 2014, Narendra Modi and the BJP party he leads have implemented legislation and policies that call into question India’s commitment to democracy. Today, legitimate dissent in India is compromised. The BJP has used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to designate individuals as terrorists without providing corroborating evidence, and provisions in the penal code have been invoked to silence journalists. Three years ago, the Indian Parliament passed a law providing a pathway to citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighboring countries explicitly excluding individuals of Muslim faith. Is India’s democracy in decline? Will the BJP’s majoritarian rule erode India’s tradition of pluralism, secularism, and religious tolerance? Do authoritarian features of the current government point towards India becoming an ethnic, illiberal democracy? In this episode of "Vis A Vis," Sciences Po Professor Christophe Jaffrelot and Manan Ahmed, Professor at Columbia University, shed…

On September 16th, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, Mahsa Amini, died after being arrested by Iran’s Guidance Patrol – the morality police – for wearing her hijab too loosely. Her death triggered a wave of protests throughout the country. In this episode, we speak with Dr Kian Tajbakhsh, Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, to understand the origins of this “feminist social movement”, its potential outcomes, and its implications for forming a new social foundation for Iran.

The 13,000 nuclear warheads that exist across the world today are enough to eradicate humanity several times over. Given the real risk that nuclear disruption still represents, it should feature more prominently in the public debate. In this episode, we speak to Benoît Pelopidas, Associate Professor at Sciences Po, to understand the state of the threat today. We ask him about his research on close calls and the role of luck in preventing nuclear catastrophe. He unravels much of the prevailing logic around nuclear deterrence, warns of the dangers of relying on information from the official experts in nuclear weapons states, and discusses how the magnitude of the threat can be conveyed to the general public.

"Vis a Vis" is a new podcast brought to you by the Alliance Program at Columbia University. Alliance is a partnership bringing together Columbia University and three leading French higher education institutions: Sciences Po, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and Ecole Polytechnique.