Presentation of the session

For this second session, we will address the upheavals in the world, showing how the emergence of political figures such as Trump and environmental crises are creating ‘tipping points’. These ruptures directly influence the destiny of societies, disrupting values, alliances and horizons.

The session, moderated by Bettina Laville, President of the Institute and Honorary State Councillor, will be attended by Michel Duclos, former ambassador and special advisor to the Institut Montaigne. Latest book published: Diplomatie Française (Alpha-Essais), Romain Huret, President of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, historian of the United States. Latest book: Les oubliés de la Saint-Valentin. Célibataires, ordre matrimonial et inégalités aux États-Unis (XX-XXIe siècles) (The Forgotten Ones of Valentine's Day: Singles, Matrimonial Order and Inequality in the United States (20th-21st Centuries)) and by Amy Dahan, Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS, co-author of Agir dans la Mutation Climatique (Acting on Climate Change) (to be published in March 2026).

Presentation of speakers

Michel Duclos
A career diplomat, Michel Duclos graduated from ENA in 1978. In the 1980s and 1990s, he served at the SGDN (Secretariat-General for National Defence), at the Centre d'Analyse et de Prévision du Quai d'Orsay, in Moscow, in Bonn, and then as Deputy Director for Disarmament.

He then served as ambassador to the WEU and the PSC (1998-2002), deputy permanent representative to the French mission in New York (2002-2006) and ambassador to Damascus (2006-2009). Diplomatic advisor to the Minister of the Interior from 2009 to 2012, he ended his career as ambassador to Bern (2012-2014). Since then, Michel Duclos has headed the International Diplomatic Academy and joined the Institut Montaigne as Special Advisor. He is the author of La Longue Nuit Syrienne (2019) and La France dans le bouleversement du monde (2021), published by Éditions de l'Observatoire, and edited two books, Le Monde des Nouveaux Autoritaires (2019) and Guerre en Ukraine et nouvel ordre du monde (2023), co-published by the Institut Montaigne and Éditions de l'Observatoire.

Romain Huret
Romain Huret is a historian specialising in the United States and a director of studies. His main area of interest is economic and social inequality in the United States. His first book, La fin de la pauvreté? (The End of Poverty?), was published by EHESS in 2008 and translated by Cornell University Press. In 2014, he published American Tax Resisters with Harvard University Press. He is currently completing two books: one on the trial of Andrew W. Mellon for tax evasion in the 1930s, entitled A Rich Man on Trial. Andrew W. Mellon, New Dealers and Democracy, and the other on single people from colonial times to the present day, provisionally entitled Les oubliés de la Saint-Valentin. Célibataires, ordre matrimonial et inégalités aux Etats-Unis (XX-XXIe siècles) (The Forgotten Ones of Valentine's Day: Single People, Matrimonial Order and Inequality in the United States (20th-21st Centuries)). He has been the director of EHESS since 2022.

Amy Dahan
Amy Dahan is a mathematician and science historian, emeritus research director at the CNRS. Amy Dahan's work focuses on the history of mathematics, algebra and mathematical physics, the role of science during the Second World War and the Cold War, but also on the place of women in science and the interactions of mathematics with other disciplines.

For the past twenty years, her work has focused on modelling, the study of deterministic chaos and the science of disorder. Amy Dahan is director of a team at the CNRS's Alexandre Koyré Centre that studies the political, scientific and epistemological aspects of climate change. She has contributed to the drafting and publication of several observation reports from international climate conferences.

Amy Dahan has previously taught at the University of Amiens, the École Polytechnique, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and the Free University of Brussels. She is a graduate of Paris-XIII University, where she obtained a postgraduate doctorate in mathematics.

Presentation of the cycle

We often hear that "we are living in a time of disruption’' or that "we are living in a time of transition", expressions that tend to replace what was still prevalent two or three years ago. However, these two movements are simultaneously visible: they complement each other and sometimes clash.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, on the steps of Matignon, declared on 10 September: "We will need disruptions, and not just in form, and not just in method. We will also need to make fundamental changes." For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney began his speech at the Davos Forum with: "We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition."

We can see that the concept of change, perceived by people and leaders as hope, threat or vertigo, deeply influences thinking about our times. Christian Salmon, writer and researcher, even describes it as a ‘true anthropological change.’ Indeed, the reversal of values and the distortion of reality extend this anthropological change to many areas of our lives, both public and private.

Presentation of the cycle

Organised by Bettina Laville, President of the Paris IAS and Honorary State Councillor, this series of meetings consists of four sessions devoted to analysing contemporary transformations. It explores the notions of rupture and transition, perceived as hopes, threats or vertigo, and their impact on values, society and everyday life. The discussions will draw on intellectual, political and anthropological perspectives to understand the profound dynamics shaping our era.

Practical details

Sessions are held in person only at the Institute for Advanced Study in Paris (Paris IAS, Gardes Room - 1st floor, Hôtel de Lauzun, 17 quai d'Anjou, 75004 Paris).
Admission is free, but registration is required (see the registration form for this session below).

For more information, please contact information@paris-iea.fr

Due to its classification as a historic building and current regulations, smoking is prohibited (inside and in the courtyard), as is eating and drinking in the conference room and wearing high heels.