LES COUPS DE COEUR DE SERGE (BD ET ECONOMIE POLITIQUE)

Les commentaires sont ceux des éditeurs.
Seule la BD de Tardi est en français, les autres livres recommandés par Serge sont en anglais, ils ne sont pas encore traduits dans notre langue.

« Moi René Tardi, prisonnier de guerre au Stalag II B », de Jacques Tardi, édit. Castermann, nov. 2012

 Né en 1946, Jacques Tardi passe ses premières années dans l'Allemagne de l'après-guerre, son père étant militaire de carrière. Plus tard, les atrocités de la guerre de 14-18, celle de son grand-père, d'origine corse, hanteront ses rêves d'enfant avant de devenir par la suite un des thèmes majeurs qui inspireront son œuvre. Etudiant à l'école des beaux-arts de Lyon, puis aux Arts décoratifs de Paris, Jacques Tardi fait ses débuts, en 1969, dans l'hebdomadaire Pilote. En 1972 paraît sa première longue histoire, Rumeurs sur le Rouergue (scénario Christin, éditée chez Futuropolis en 1976). C'est en 1976 que Jacques Tardi fait son entrée chez Casterman et entame le cycle des "Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec", dont le succès ne se fait pas attendre. Le neuvième album de cette série populaire, intitulé Le mystère des profondeurs, paraît le 14 novembre 98 dans la série "Adèle Blanc-Sec", chez Casterman. Parallèlement, Tardi adapte le Paris de Léo Malet, celui des aventures de Nestor Burma, et réalise d'autres adaptations qui sont autant de succès (Le der des ders de Daeninckx, Le cri du peuple de Vautrin, etc.).

 

 

 

“Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power”, by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Basic Books, 224 p.

By 1991, following the disintegration first of the Soviet bloc and then of the Soviet Union itself, the United States was left standing tall as the only global super-power. Not only the 20th but even the 21st century seemed destined to be the American centuries. But that super-optimism did not last long. During the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, the stock market bubble and the costly foreign unilateralism of the younger Bush presidency, as well as the financial catastrophe of 2008 jolted America – and much of the West – into a sudden recognition of its systemic vulnerability to unregulated greed. Moreover, the East was demonstrating a surprising capacity for economic growth and technological innovation. That prompted new anxiety about the future, including even about America’s status as the leading world power. This book is a response to a challenge. It argues that without an America that is economically vital, socially appealing, responsibly powerful, and capable of sustaining an intelligent foreign engagement, the geopolitical prospects for the West could become increasingly grave. The ongoing changes in the distribution of global power and mounting global strife make it all the more essential that America does not retreat into an ignorant garrison-state mentality or wallow in cultural hedonism but rather becomes more strategically deliberate and historically enlightened in its global engagement with the new East.

This book seeks to respond to four major questions:

1. What are the implications of the changing distribution of global power from the West to the East, and how is it being affected by the new reality of a politically awakened humanity?

2. Why is America’s global appeal waning, what are the symptoms of America’s domestic and international decline, and how did America waste the unique global opportunity offered by the peaceful end of the Cold War? Conversely, what are America’s recuperative strengths and what geopolitical reorientation is necessary to revitalize America’s world role?

3. What would be the likely geopolitical consequences if America declined from its globally preeminent position, who would be the almost-immediate geopolitical victims of such a decline, what effects would it have on the global-scale problems of the twenty-first
century, and could China assume America’s central role in world affairs by 2025?

4. Looking beyond 2025, how should a resurgent America define its long-term geopolitical goals, and how could America, with its traditional European allies, seek to engage Turkey and Russia in order to construct an even larger and more vigorous West ? Simultaneously, how could America achieve balance in the East between the need for close cooperation with China and the fact that a constructive American role in Asia should be neither exclusively China-centric nor involve dangerous entanglements in Asian conflicts ?

 

 

“The Post-American World”, by Fareed Zacharia,

“The Post-American World” is a non-fiction book.

In the book, Zakaria argues that, thanks to the actions of the United States in spreading liberal democracy across the world, other countries are now competing with the US in terms of economic, industrial, and cultural power. While the US continues to dominate in terms of political-military power, other countries such as China and India are becoming global players in many fields.

The book peaked at #2 on The New York Times non-fiction hardcover best-seller list and at #47 on the USA To Day Top 150 Best-Selling Books list. Reviewers commented that Zakaria's writing was intelligent and sharp, yet accessible to general audiences. A few reviewers also wrote that the book was similar to an extended essay with journalistic style writing.

 

 

 

« Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan », by Ahmed Rashid, march 2012

What are the possibilities-and hazards-facing America as it withdraws from Afghanistan and as it reviews its long engagement in Pakistan ? Where is the Taliban now in both these countries? What does the immediate future hold and what are America's choices as President Obama considers our complicated history and faces reelection ?

These are some of the crucial questions that Ahmed Rashid- Pakistan's preeminent journalist-takes on in this follow-up to his acclaimed Descent into Chaos. Rashid correctly predicted that the Iraq war would have to be refocused into Afghanistan and that Pakistan would emerge as the leading player through which American interests and actions would have to be directed. Now, as Washington and the rest of the West wrestle with negotiating with unreliable and unstable "allies" in Pakistan, there is no better guide to the dark future than Ahmed Rashid.

He focuses on the long-term problems-the changing casts of characters, the future of international terrorism, and the actual policies and strategies both within Pakistan and Afghanistan and among the Western allies-as the world tries to bring some stability to a fractured region saddled with a legacy of violence and corruption. The decisions made by America and the West will affect the security and safety of the world. And as he has done so well in the past, Rashid offers sensible solutions and provides a way forward for all three countries.

 

 

« The World Until Yesterday » by Jared Diamond, 2012, (existe en édition Kindle)

The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years - a past that has mostly vanished - and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today.
This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies - after all, we are shocked by some of their practices - but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. A characteristically provocative, enlightening, and entertaining book, The World Until Yesterday will be essential and delightful reading.