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Units

REPI Recherche et Études en Politique Internationale

REPI is a research unit, mainly dedicated to research and studies in international politics at the Université libre de Bruxelles. It is linked to the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences. REPI fosters fundamental research in the field of international relations and aims at providing a high quality framework for the research in this field (PhD dissertations, publications, conferences...). Depending on available resources, members of REPI can also provide specific expertise for national and international institutions. Furthermore, the research centre encourages the dissemination of knowledge in international relations to a larger audience and represents a convenient space for discussing the teaching of international relations within the university. REPI also organises seminars and summer schools for professionals and young scholars.

Its scientific activities focus on two major areas of international politics: the study of security issues and international public policy (environment, health, international economics, development, etc.). These activities are rooted in several research traditions and schools of thought: foreign policy analysis, political sociology of international affairs, critical approaches to security, international political economy, etc., with the aim of better understanding power issues in international relations at different levels. The research agenda also includes the study of the European Union's external action and the main international institutions.

Director : Christian Olsson

Projetcs

Françafrique and post-colonial mythmaking in West Africa

Did France topple the African leaders of independence? The foundational claim of the Françafrique conceptualisation of post-colonial history is that the French government has orchestrated coups d’état against African leaders who threatened their perceived interests. This idea of French intervention in former colonies has been used to explain the continued survival of the CFA Franc and the recent wave of coups in West Africa. Indeed, since its first use in 1998 as a left-wing critique of French Africa-policy promoted by the “association Survie”, this term has exploded in popularity and has been widely adopted in academic writing. However, despite merits in the activist realm, this key claim has not been weighed against the archival evidence now available. Furthermore, the idea of la Françafrique lacks analytical precision and at its worst has encouraged intellectual short-cuts and a conspiracist tendency to see any major event on the African continent as the result of French meddling. Through an interdisciplinary approach this research will engage this concept head on. This research has two primary objectives: (i) to rigorously and systematically evaluate the key factual claims which underpin the Françafrique concept through newly available archival material; (ii) to explore the genesis and circulation of the idea of la Françafrique and develop a new concept which better reflects the underlying empirical record.