Once again this year, the seminar offers a vast panorama of the latest Arab upheavals since 2011. New sequences were given fresh insights by leading specialists in the field. Two main types of presentation contrasted national approaches (Egyptian and Syrian trajectories, etc.) and broader themes (nature of the state, colonial policy around Islam, etc.).
Within the framework of national studies, the plurality of Syrian scenes was successively brought together around the notion of trajectory. In Egypt, counter-terrorism policy synthesizes both the ferments legitimizing Marshal Sissi's regime and the new practices of power since 2014. In Iraq, a rereading of mobilities was organized around an analysis of violence as a vector of social transformation. A lively demonstration then brought together the security state, with its networked police forces, and the political forms born of radical Islam. Finally, two contributions returned to the history of orientalists, showing how knowledge has been built up around this region, and a detailed analysis of France's Muslim policy in Algeria clarified how the secular Republic structures a specific management of worship.
Once again, the seminar is in tune with the latest research and political developments. It proved to be - and the audience confirmed - a meeting place for the public with the Arab world properly dissected.