Antoine Sakho | Sciences Po, Paris (original) (raw)

Papers by Antoine Sakho

The present invention relates to a method for making an electronic transaction service. The metho... more The present invention relates to a method for making an electronic transaction service. The method comprising the steps of: - receiving by a server a first terminal a request for creation of electronic transaction corresponding to a requested service; - save in the server first information (I1) of said electronic transaction; - sending from the server to the first terminal the first information (I1) to said electronic transaction; - generating by the server a transaction code (QR-C) comprising an identifier (Id) of said electronic transaction; - sending by the server to the first terminal the transaction code (QR-C); - scanning the transaction code (QR-C) by means of a second terminal; - sending from the server to the second terminal of the second information (I2) of said electronic transaction from the transaction code scanned (RQ-C); - receiving by the server a personal identification number (PIN) and a validation information (IVAL) of the electronic transaction sent by the second...

« Instead of a battle of ideas, the EU has been marred by a vicious circle between anti-EU popul... more « Instead of a battle of ideas, the EU has been marred by a
vicious circle between anti-EU populism and technocratic
agreements between member states that are afraid of their
citizens.»

Tout porte à croire que les élections européennes de mai 2014 marqueront une véritable rupture avec les élections européennes passées.

En effet, de nombreux sondages et statistiques indiquent une montée en puissance considérable des partis souverainistes et eurosceptiques aux prochaines élections européennes, et ce dans de nombreux Etats-Membres de l’Union Européenne.

Ainsi, il nous semble intéressant de nous livrer à l’exercice de prospective suivant : dans l’éventualité du succès considérable de ces partis souverainistes aux prochaines élections européennes, la démocratie européenne sera-t-elle remise en cause suite à un affaiblissement du rôle du Parlement européen, ou sera-t-elle au contraire renforcée ?

Dans un premier temps, nous exposerons la montée en puissance des partis souverainistes dans les Etats-Membres de l’Union Européenne. Ensuite, nous analyserons les risques qu’un succès des partis souverainistes aux prochaines élections pourrait entraîner, que ce soit au niveau Européen ou au niveau national.

Dans un second temps, nous démontrerons comment l’accroissement du poids politique des partis eurosceptiques au sein du Parlement européen pourrait au contraire renforcer la démocratie européenne, puis nous exposerons également les limites de la menace que les partis souverainistes sont censés représenter pour cette dernière.

This article addresses a hypothetical correlation between a) the exponential use of social me... more This article addresses a hypothetical correlation between

a) the exponential use of social media by UKIP - “United-Kingdom Independence Party” (the independent variable)
and
b) the considerable surge in opinion polls and elections they have witnessed over the past five years (the dependent variable).

Indeed, the rise of social media (embodied in social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) in the last decade has both provoked a decline in the hegemony of the mainstream media (TV, newspapers, radio) and an increase in the visibility of fringe ideas and political parties (such as the UKIP)

So far, no literature has really investigated a potential causal link between those two phenomena, and such is the aim of this paper, taking as a case example Nigel Farage’s UKIP during the last European legislature (2009-20014)

As such, we investigate how UKIP benefitted from the developments of social media, analyse the context in which this happened and explore how their message was carried by social media.

The underlying hypotheses behind such a Research Question go as follows:

- Hypothesis 1 (H1): UKIP has been one of the most skillful political party in Great-Britain in the use of social media.

-Hypothesis 2 (H2): UKIP’s mastery of social media (independent variable) has enabled it to surge in opinion polls and elections like never before (dependent variable)

The aftermath of the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restrictions of Chemical... more The aftermath of the REACH
(Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restrictions of Chemicals) regulation, which entered into force on June 1, 2007, is by far one of the most prominent cases supporting the idea of the European Union’s power to export norms worldwide.

This paper will however focus exclusively on the impact REACH has had in the United States, that is the transatlantic normative reach of the REACH regulation.

Since its inception, the European Union has sought to liberalise trade and create a single market... more Since its inception, the European Union has sought to liberalise trade and create a single market. Its admitted goal has been to “to ensure the economic and social progress of [...] States by common action to eliminate the barriers which divide Europe”.

As a result, it is true that the story of the European Union is one of liberalisation. What do we mean by liberalisation? Well, “to make laws or rules less strict so that people have more freedom” according to the McMillan dictionary.

Less textually speaking, liberalisation implies a relaxation of government restrictions, especially in areas of social or economic policy, hence is often also referred to as “deregulation”.

Now, our question here is to figure out whether or not the case law on freedom of establishment and services has been one of unwavering liberalisation.

In the first part, we will show how the European Court of Justice has pushed for more liberalisation and the abolition of restrictions on freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services.

In the second part, we will show how the Court was careful in allowing States to restrict such freedoms where public interest would override the objective of liberalising trade.

War does not only consist in an open warfare between belligerents, but also in the social and eco... more War does not only consist in an open warfare between belligerents, but also in the social and economic distortions it brings upon society as a whole.

Similarly, war cannot be understood simply as a linear time-path starting with the entry of belligerent countries in a conflict and ending with the subsequent victory of one over another, but also as the sum of various externalities that emerge from it, on an undefined temporal basis, affecting the society in return and eventually, creating the conditions for a conflict anew. In a word, war sows its own seeds.

This paper intends to discuss the contemporary South-East Asian trauma regarding drugs, in the scope of the Opium Wars as well as the subsequent events leading us to the present situation.

By trauma, we mean, the long-term shock, both economic, social and psychological that was inflicted to this region from the Opium Wars up to nowadays., and that is best illustrated by the fact South-East Asia has the harshest drug penalties in the world – Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore pronounce the death sentence on drug users and traffickers more than any countries in the world.

More than a trauma, one could even qualify it of a "dissociative identity order", to use the appropriate term, since these extremely punitive laws are applied in a region, known for being the second opium world producer quantitatively speaking -and the first qualitatively speaking, without evoking its recent -and proven successful- shift to metamphetamine and amphetamine-type stimulants' production. As a result, the drug issue will be treated as a whole, from the first British poppy cultivations to the latest metamphetamine manufacture.

This paper will focus on the production/export-oriented centre, often referred to as the Golden Triangle -namely, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos. We will also assume Vietnam to stand in this production/export-oriented centre, even if it not considered as part of the Golden Triangle geographic model.
By historically being the main producers of narcotics in South-East Asia, those countries have experienced a unique degree of interdependence between politics and narcotics, where states, factions and poppy flowers make strange bedfellows.

Hence, this paper will explore the role of ethnic minorities and rebel groups, the involvement of the government or/and of the military in the production process and the economic interests pushing for narcotics' production as well as the policies enforced to fight drug production, trafficking and production in the Golden Triangle. Ironically enough, in this centre, the ones enacting the severe drug policies do in fact often prosper thanks to a flourishing drug production.

It will also allocate a significant part to the recent evolution in the drug trade patterns, namely the shift from opium-poppy cultivation to amphetamine-type stimulants and its effects on the structure of the drug trade and drug policy.

It will finish by dealing with the issues created in the peripheral export/consumption-oriented periphery that is greatly affected and brutally responsive to the Golden Triangle's drug trade, namely Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

Ronald Coase, a famous economist from the Chicago School of Economics, is known as the father of ... more Ronald Coase, a famous economist from the Chicago School of Economics, is known as the father of New Institutional Economics (NIE).

This new field of research was a significant innovation as it sought to analyse law and institutions from an economic efficiency perspective: its main premise is therefore that law should be efficient from an economic standpoint.

This paper will thus address smoking regulations from a Coasian perspective, that is from the perspective of their efficiency.

New Labour’s rise to power in 1997, achieved through a landslide victory -43.2% of the seats- in ... more New Labour’s rise to power in 1997, achieved through a landslide victory -43.2% of the seats- in the general elections then seemed to bode a change of course, or even a reversal, of the Thatcher-Major’s years of neoliberal policies.

By neoliberalism, we mean the intellectual project, born in reaction to the postwar welfarist and Keynesian consensus, which burgeoned within the academic world and whose fundamental premise is “the superiority of individualized, market-based competition over other modes of organization”. Or as economists would say, the market is a more efficient allocator of resources than the state.

As such, neoliberalism praises “the moral benefits of market society” and identifies “markets as a necessary condition for freedom in other aspects of life”2. It is therefore a market-centric centric vision of society: from this central premise stems an array of consistent political, economic and social positions which together form the project of neoliberalism.

Even though Blair’s New Labour came to power on the basis of a social-democrat agenda which included redistributive social policies and expansionary economic policies, it seems that instead of reversing the neoliberal consensus of the time, New Labour under the premiership of M. Blair actually maintained such consensus and mostly followed in the footsteps of its predecessors.

This paper will thus analyze M. Blair’s New Labour policies from a neoliberal perspective.

In the first part, we will expose some policies, undertaken under Blair’s government, and which signaled a clear anchoring of New Labour’s position to an existing neoliberal paradigm.

In the second part, we will analyze those policies within the framework of the larger neoliberal consensus and inquire into the reasons behind the hegemony of the neoliberal doctrine.

In the aftermath of the Lehman shock and the global banking crisis, strong calls in favor of new ... more In the aftermath of the Lehman shock and the global banking crisis, strong calls in favor of new regulations have arisen. The credit crisis, mainly caused by the securitization of excessive uncollateralized debt issued by – and sold to- financial institutions, notably through specifically created “special vehicles” along with poor risk assessment and failing market discipline has created a renewed need for scrutiny, audit and regulations that would reduce systemic risks on the long-run, in order to prevent such shocks.

Brutal changes in asset quality and value can quickly wipe out bank capital. When short-term wholesale liabilities fund longer-term assets, any failure to roll over short-term financial paper, which equates to a ‘run’ on deposits, can force de-leveraging and asset sales. Banking crises associated with such changes are often systemic in nature, arising from the interconnectedness of financial arrangements: banks between themselves, with derivative counterparties and with direct links to consumption and investment spending decisions. As a result, policy makers have an incentive to regulate the amount of capital that banks are required to hold, and require high standards of corporate governance, including liquidity management, accounting, audit and disciplined lending practices.
Some reform proposals on this very issue have focused on the Basel II agreements. While those agreements had been designed in order to guarantee “healthy” capital risk management, it has appeared that it wasn’t fully operational. Most importantly, many economists have underlined the pro-cyclicality issue arising from the Basel minimum capital requirements: they do actually reinforce credit expansion during growth periods, while they strongly encourage credit contraction during economic distress.

Between 1989 and 2000, Japan was the largest foreign aid donor in the world. Meanwhile, Japanese ... more Between 1989 and 2000, Japan was the largest foreign aid donor in the world. Meanwhile, Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) had played a prominent role in Japan’s foreign policy.

Yet public recognition of Japan’s ODA as a critical foreign policy tool seems low, and the effectiveness of this foreign policy is still uncertain.

However, we do believe Japan’s ODA policies were a crucial success factor of Japan’s postwar economic diplomacy and subsequent economic recovery ; but also of Japan’s accession to large multilateral and regional organisations and the increasing lead it took in those.

Obviously enough, the issue of leadership, should it be economic or diplomatic, is here crucial to the general understanding of this study.

Indeed, “leadership“ as conceptualised by Oral Young takes three main forms: structural leadership, which is the ability to use seuperior material resources in order to compel and induce other countries to cooperate; entrepreunarial leadership which involves diplomatic initiatives, negotiating skills and brokerage; and intellectual leadership, which relies on the power of ideas to shape the way in which participants think about options available in order to come to terms with specific issues.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to show how Japan, through its ODA, achieved those three kinds of leadership: as we’ll see, Japan’s ODA not only benefited the Japanese economy (structural leadership), but also helped Japan attain a new status in international organisations (entrepreunarial leadership) and eventually become the model country for economic assistance policies and practices (intellectual leadership).

Therefore, this paper will analyze the Japanese practice of ODA and how Japan’s foreign aid attained its foreign policy goals. To this end, it will firstly focus on ODA as such: its history, its volume, its structure and its recipient countries. Then it will deal with the impact of the ODA policy in Japan’s foreign policy, in two respective areas: Japanese domestic economic welfare through ODA policies and gradual involvement and increasing leadership in international economic organisations;

Buddhism, amongst all religions, is often thought to be the most pacifist and respectful of all l... more Buddhism, amongst all religions, is often thought to be the most pacifist and respectful of all living things. Even Judeo-Christian faiths have set an imperative not to kill, should it be
through God’s Sixth Commandment or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mountain.

Buddhism also set it, in the context of the “Right Action”, a part of the noble eightfold path:
“And what is right action? Abstaining from taking life, from stealing, and from illicit sex This is called right action.” -Saccavibhanga Sutta

"And how is one made pure in three ways by bodily action? There is the case where a certain person, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from the taking of life. He dwells with his...knife laid down, scrupulous, merciful, compassionate for the welfare of all
living beings."- Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta

However, it might be necessary to debunk the myth of a non-violent and peaceful Buddhism in the case of Japan: as far back as 949AD, violence was not uncommon to the most powerful Buddhist sects. During following centuries, some of those sects even transformed into de facto armies, terrifying daimyos and rival sects, struggling for political power and recruiting unbelievable numbers of followers, should they be lay, monks or priests.

Eventually, such organizations came to disappear after the Sengoku wars due to a strong will from Japan’s unifiers, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Tokugawa, to get rid of the threats they inevitably posed and Buddhism simply became a instrument of the
State.

However, during the Meiji period, expansion in order to reverse the course of Haibutsu Kishaku, Buddhism started to tie very close links with the Imperial authority and thus advocated military expansion in Asia, thereby transforming itself in an aggressive
and violent doctrine in some sects.

Still, one must discriminate between the sectarian and faction-politics-based Buddhism of the times of the sohei (warrior-monk) and the nationalistic Buddhism of the Meiji era.

International law, as a body of rules governing the relations between States, is founded upon sev... more International law, as a body of rules governing the relations between States, is founded upon several principles that States should comply with in order to maintain peace and ensure the quality of their relations.

What we understand by “principles that govern international law” are the principles stated in the 1970 “Declaration on Principles of International Law, Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations”.

However, as we will see further, the said principles were already existing previously to this declaration, should it be in treaties, customary law, general principles of law, judicial decisions and juristic writings. As such, we should not confuse what is meant by “principles that govern international law” with the “general principles of international law”, since the former are the substantive principles while the latter are a legal basis.

Consequently, it should be noted that the “principles that govern international law” are to be found across all four legal bases available to he International Court of Justice as defined in the Statute of the International Court of Justice, article 38 (1).

However, before we start analyzing the said principles, it should also be noted that there is an absence of clarity on the legal status of the text embodying all those principles, namely the “Declaration on Principles of International Law, Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations”. Indeed, it is not clear whether the declaration is a simple “recommendation” or a statement of legally binding rules. However, the fact that most of these principles were embodied in the Charter of the United Nation (a legally binding text) would point to the latter.

The principles governing international law are as follows: 1)Prohibition of the threat or use of force 2) Duty to settle disputes peacefully 3) Duty of non‐intervention 4) Duty to cooperate 5) Principle of equal rights and self‐determination of peoples 6) Principle of sovereign equality of States 7) Principle of good faith

In the first place, we will analyze the said principles governing international law, considering previous attempts to codify them

In the second place, we will analyze the principles contained in the “Declaration on Principles of International Law, Friendly Relations and Co‐operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations” and their effectiveness in regulating state practice, from a critical perspective.

“Deflation is back”. This is more or less what every newspaper was claiming about Japan last Sept... more “Deflation is back”. This is more or less what every newspaper was claiming about Japan last September.
Indeed, last December, the Bank of Japan published, in its monthly
Price Index report, that general level of prices had declined by 2,8% compared to December 2008.

Three years after it thought it had finally ended it, the Bank of Japan must once again fight its two-decade old foe