Growing interest in the study of networks is an opportunity to question the very nature of geographic space, the most fundamental yet least well-defined concept in our discipline. Networks in geography Networks are all the rage in geography. In recent years, a growing number of geographers have been seeking to better understand the relationships between […]
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In the past 25 years, French Professor Denis Retaillé was involved in the supervision of 39 graduate students. In 2006, I became one of them after completing a joint dissertation between the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the University of Rouen in France. During my professional career, I have often wondered who else had […]
The creation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in 2023 is the most recent manifestation of a long process of political fragmentation in West Africa. These regional transformations are fueled by a more global rejection of Western-inspired integration models. By Olivier Walther, 2/18/2025 A laboratory for integration West Africa […]
Political violence is very irregularly distributed across time. Periods of relative calm are often followed by massive waves of attacks. Violent events are relatively rare, sparse and concentrated, making it difficult to evaluate whether violence is actually increasing or decreasing. A novel approach to political violence A new dashboard implemented by the OECD’s Mapping Territorial […]
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This new and very personal atlas explores the geography of Mali, through the 1:200,000 maps produced by the French National Geographic Institute. Each map serves as a starting point for a reflection on the nature of geographical space. Taken together, these commentaries show the variety of the Sahara and of the Sahel and the many […]