University of Gdansk

            Social Science Faculty

              Institut of Politic Sciences

    Topic: Herodote ,,Yves    Lacoste”

Full name: Paixão António José

Course: Public diplomacy

Academic year 2016/2017              

First degree/second year

2016/2017

Introduction

Yves Lacoste geographer and geopolitic, french author as well professor at geopolitic school of Paris university VIII, created the magazin ,,Herodote”in year of 1976, dedicated too his attention to history, geography and geopolitic. Lacoste was born in Fes north of (Marroco), after his studies at 50 years, Yves married his wife, Camille Lacoste Dujardim, etnologist from Algeria. At the beginning years 50, 1952-1955, was pupil in Algeria, where met with several teachers and arabian politicians, he engaged at fight for the independence of Algeria. Under the influency of Jean Dresch, known politician, he sign up to stalin comunism party from France, he left the party in 1956, when the french congress men voted to recognation of budget to drive the war in Algeria. However the decision had not only the formal character, was still represented the right wing way of anticapitalism and antiamercian. Its worked at several areas from French society and strongly atacked the politic and social situation of France.

Lacoste was one of those specialists very well prepared political and cultural, too much clever to predict the future decision of French government and get away before start the scenario.

Back to Algeria, Yves worked at Vincennes university from Algeria in 1955, in 1968 presented at Paris university a very interested episod of Lacoste´s life, what called to much attention of the many experts, was his trip to Vietnam in 1972 as expert and observer. Narrated the result of  air american bombardment in the inundation of red river (Song koi), in order to develop his research, he opened contact with vietnamese authorities, who invieted him to the place where the event had took place. Lacoste verified that the american bombardment weakened the resistence of irrigation sistem and flooded the agricultural lands.  Despite of not being the main target, because it was for the civil population, had non human consequences. Lacoste´s opinion was to convincent that the former president of  United State Richard Nixon, demanded the cessation of the hidraulic bombardment.

By the fact of his antiamercian view point, Lacoste, was too in Cuba, his intention was not to meet Fidel Castro or the participants of the cuban social revolution, his interest was more to take care the geographic social condition of the Cuba revolution. He intended to carry this experience to other countries of the third world specially to Latina American countries. The author did several works in that area of the earth, speacailly the tactic of Fidel Castro during the revolution, he got too some peace of information from Ernest Che Guevara in Boliviam, mainly after his death. Based in this experience, Lacoste build the scenarios of the futures revolution that should change the form of the government dominated by the socialists liders of socialist sistem.

During last ten years Lacoste was essencial for the french elite intelectual  opinion. As professor at Paris University, he touch differents subjects like history, geography and politic science, what had day after day geopolitic character. He opened his own school, and success was imediatly and was more and more commented amoung academic comunity. To coordinate the extensive seach in geographic area, in 1989 created de center of research and analise geopolitic (Centre de Recerches et d´Analyse Géopolitique-CRAG), after being build he named as French Institut of Geopolitic.

He was honored with several national prizes, was distiguished too with the titul of gentleman of legion had the privilege to receive the Vautrin Lud, taken in international festival of geography in Saint-Dié-Vosges. He had been choosen and participeted at several academic committes and redaction, (between then Nordiqués and Géo-économie).

• The geopolitc thinking of France

Yves Lacoste is one of the most known author of XX century in geography area. Lacoste was born in Fez-Marroco, known as French, was geographer and geopolitical and professor at Paris University VIII. One of the most known amoung his work is La geographie and some publications in the Herodote magazine, as has been written in the introduction.

Thanks the contribuition of his view point and big effort to change the west vision of geopolitic after the second world war, was open created the known geopolitical school, and during almost ten years, was the head of the magazine Herodote, very read amoung geographers, where shows how important is the geography outside of the books, I mean the pragmatic geography. Hérodote explain the scape of the politic geography and the geopolitic.

The French geopolitic was created thanks the effort of geopolitics authors like Paul Vidal de La Blanch, created the regional school of France, that started teaching at the begin subjects like Fisiogeography and Biogeography then after adapted subject like antropogeography. De La Blanche had in mind France and his colonies,territories transatlantic or beyond the sea, then after the regional geography of the world. This author had as well to much influency of geopolitical german school, that way his work and his disciples were not verified, taking in account the carachter of german thinking geopolitic (determinism and fatalism).¹

Between disciples of La Blanche are Karl Ritter, ,,Les annales de la géogrophie” work of De La Blanche and developed by Ritter, Macel Dubois and Lucien Gallois, developed too this magazine, was one of the most expensive magazine of geography in the world.

La gégraphie humaine was crucial to develop the french geographic thinking, book that was published after his death. Other generation that was engaged too at human geography was at the second half of XIX and XX centuries, comes up names like Emmanuel de Martone, Albert Demangeon, Pierre Camena d´Almeida Jean Brunhes, the last was more sociologist-economic by the fact of his approach. The first french gographer that used the terminology geography was Jacques Ancel, thougth this terminology more suitable than politic geography in 1936, because of the international environment in that moment, This one, as others critical french geopolitics, criticezed too the german geopolitc school, headed by Karl Haushofer thinking. André Chéradame another french author, opposed to the german idea of Pangermanism (division the world by sectores, headed by a country under the german control, in another can be said ,,world empire”), he says that this policy leave France in a desadventage as west country. To him, this policy should be the main goal of French policy.[1]

1.2. Lacoste and the geographic space

We cannot acept without question any usual term of a problem. These are words of a known filosof from 1935 years. Criticism here consists in questioning some differents situations that take place inside of the societies, instead that human being is the only one that have the capacity to solve their own problems. We are the problem as much we are the solutions.

Yves Lacoste in this book seems that assimilated to much this conception, by questioning the geography, the geographic knowledge as well his components. Lacoste leave behind some old questions and propose some new.

The main question that remain in his book the geography, in fact that we can find her in all chapters is for what is the geography? Or what is his function?  Does she have any other function but giving geography classes? As we know, the problematic of these questions are usually other, is she a science? By asking these questions Lacoste avoid the positive trick of ,,object of study” I mean to look at geography simply as a Science or brigde of knwolegde between the specialists and the students, Setting up to more deep groundplot: The praxis of the geographer, the politic-strategic role of this area of studies.

Lacoste used his very known book ,,The geografy” to answer their own questions made previously. So to him, geography is (however not only) to do the war, execute the politicians and militaries means, with geographic to produze and reproduze this space taking in account the fight of social classes specially the fight to the power. Is or not truely a science than less matters. His view point is that the geographic knowledge were and are always strategic knowlegde, a serious and powerful instrument extremelly connected with stadual and militaries pratics, in this order of ideas, the geopolitic is not a caricature either pseudogeography. Lacoste thinks that geopolitic should taken as the heart of the geography, taking in account his deeply and reasonable thinking.

Is important to understand Ives Lacoste context was when he had throw out this book, and wich where the main events around him. The idea of the author was to make clear how the geography should be used as science to develop the societies mainly areas like politic and mlitary isntead of being limiteted only as a subject of studies. He makes clear his intention at his magazine Herodote 1970, where he tried to explain the occult face of the geography, I mean the politic character and after at his celebre book La géographie, ça Sert, d´abord, à la faire la guerre.  In this context Lacoste believed that geography is more and should be more useful and his space was kept into society beside being a simple subject of study, the influency in the power could open a new era for the geography and give more possibilities or vision to the leaders States understand he real meaning of the science.

Meanwhile, Lacoste thinking was being implemented by such countries in the world. Basically the author did not do something different than the continuation of the thinking of Monick school of geopolitic in first half of XX century.

• The perspective of the Geography

The idea of Ives Lacoste created to many differents interpretation among academic/scholars comunity by the fact of the polemic that carred with him. Nevertheless, acording the him, two are  the form of interpretation the geography nowadays

1. a) The interpretaion of the professors, teachers, students its mean monografies, papers, lessons, didactics books. In this interpretation the author add too the turism, the means of comunication, the encyclopedias. The author does not homegenize all of these modalities of the geographie, he just put at the seme side of a binary perception.
2. b) The second interpretation is what I prefer call by pragmatism, in another way, is the geography based fundamentaly in pratice of larger sates, grand capitalists companies as well by State apparatus.The last one is the oldest, she come up since the advent of the firsts maps, what does it assume the organization of the societies with the political power instituted while State. And the geography of professors is the newest, she came up at XIX century, used basically to serve the ideologic speech of mestification of space. Yves call its as smoke curtain, whose main aim is to keep the importance of the strategy of knowing thinking the space and in it get organized.

Speaking particulary to this last group ,,university researchers and professors of geography” Lacoste strongly reiterates an advice: We have to assume what we always exorcised, I mean our function of strategics of knowing thinking the space to act efficiently. Overcome the ideologic of the geography, at this way its should be nothing more than to initiate a goegraphy of the dominated. One  knowing of thinking of space to avoid in perspective to resist against domination.

Incorporation and foremost of politic in the wake of the geography is the biggest preposition of  Lacoste ,what we can clearly confirm at his book ,,La gèographie” as we can understand at all of his pages and chapters. But does not trate about the politician but the politic, what it presupposes not the person that exercise the politics activities but the process, the phenomen, the puzzle of the politic life while experiency of creator the social-historic and this way the space, (at least at modern society). The politics suggest the theorics places or estabilished fact with presupposed intangibility, (The space of politics has as reference the economy of science, etc). By his time the politician want to give to instituition and the indeterminated of the power as social relation, what goes beyond of the ideas of the symbols or pratice engendered since the (or in view point) of State and political party legals or clandestine.

In these terms, the reason of the geography should be understanding of the world and change him, to think the space and in it fight with efficiently, making a small reflection of Lacoste thinking, fight efficiently the space  means protect the geographic space as parte of culture of a civilization, as defends the determinism theory, better loose thousands and thousands lives than loose a parte of space of territory Rudolf Kjellen ,,L’Etat comme forme de vie” (1916).

1.4. The ontology expression of space

The author, asked several questions to him self about the space and the way that must be used and how it should change the live of the citezans once suffured any kind of changement. But what world are we talking about? What is the ontologic expression of space? In spite of many criticism made by Lacoste to the french school of geography, in this point, he reveals as inheritor and follower of this tradiction ( neologism, created for analogy and historicity), according him, can be definited essencially with reference and cartography and at special way the conception of the scale. As the the great thinker of  Lena, proclamated that everything real is raccional and everthing racional is real, can be said that Lacoste’s view point is that the ,,real”is the geographic space and these other things that can be in map, put on the geographic letter, delimited with accuracy on the terren and definieted in terms of cartography scale.

The Lacoste Methodology, critizes sharply the view point of space of the politicians, militaries, sociologists, historians and other specialists, but paradoxally allow us to understand the limit of these critizes and the analises proposes that can be found on her implicitly.[2] Therefor, the construction of a rich and structural conception of space that can give back attention to the contemporary space, taken as  a prism empiric-cartographic, Lacoste clears up the ambiguity of the nations as “country”, “region”, “north-south”, “center and perifery”, “imperialism” and other, and propose that to redifine the issues the complementary idea of “spaciality differencial” and differents orders of great, in terms of scale phenomens spacial is the most ideal beginning.

In this act of identification of geographic to cartographic, nevertheless arrive to politic area and dictate the importants at the relations as the domination. The author says that the human body, the conflict of generation, the issues of the woman and the femenism, the social classes as auto-constitution of the experience of fights, these topics and other similaries, are extremally conected with geographic matter, according he explains in a parte of  his book where says, those who wonna guide a politic geography into the direction to the power seems in the level of non cartographic-relations. At this should be condened the geographers to study the aparecences? In spite of the dialect terminology used by Lacoste at this and other books, shouldn’t be this an option to reserv the geography only to certains aspects of the reality as she can be understood by the identitary?

Countless ideas still could be questioned, like the simplification of the social paper of the “teachers geography”, non perception of the relation subject-object and the historicity of the knowlegde and the pratice of the conception to open of the geopolitic, the mitification of the fiticism of the geographic letter elaborated by the instituid power, etc. But none questions either from here or from there, should annul the prestigy of his masterpiece that have very and very meanings to the geographic society, by the fact that’s one the best critices to the geography at last decads in bulge of the “crise geography”.  In synthesis, a work sine qua non to those who interest and care about  the geography, geographic knwoledge, the teach of the geography, with the space while material dimension of the instruments of domination.

Without much doubt, we can afirm that Yves Lacoste carred with him a small part of Marxism taking in account the texts of 1976, as well the influency of Foucalt (clearly a great refernce of dogmatism), existed to a small proximity with Althusser, in the edition of this magazine 1986, can be seen the tendence of the author in  order to improve his work he had to get away of Althusserianism, that based not only at Marx economicism but principaly at Stalin policy characteristic, looking to connect the politician, the relations of the power the strategies at his collision estabilish permanently the social and spacial. Lacoste admonishs that is needed to refuse the primate of the economy, refuse the ipso, hard facts the prefixed concepts and the perception teleological of the historic process. He uses Marx as well Foucault, from Clausewitz to Lefort (whose the read can be deduzed special in politics questions), but without falldown in dogmatism.

1.5. The Herodote magazine

Without much doubt, Lacoste was the creator and the main face during many years of “Herodote” magazin. The first edition of Herodote magazin was in 1976, from there, the magazin comes up regulary in quarter (in three in three months). In the very beginning the income of the magazine was to publish topic of the geopolitic scopes. There was three strong words in the titul: strategie, geographie and ideologies, so as to emancipete the magazine in cause. Only after 1982, these keys words where replaced by Revue de Geographie et de Geopolitique, the new changemente into this new titul had merely simbolic charecter, by the fact that this changement did not change the traditional approaches of the magazine. At another hand, thanks this new titul, the geopolitic became an independent subject, recognized amoung left and right wings parties in french academy. Geopolitic understood as problem connected with history, politic science and sociology. [3] This new area of studies, was interpreted by french society as unique and powerfull, than that geopolitic praticed by Friedrich Ratzel, Rudolf Kjellen and Karl Haushofer. In place “domination geopolitic” or “geopolitic of power” should be conducted as “social geopolitic” or “alternative geopolitic”.

According the assumptions of the new geopolitic proposed, should have similarities with the classic geopolitic where the use of imperialism paradigm was the conflict accord Lacoste view point, with human valuers. The creation of this kind of magazine geographic-geopolitic, Yves had in mind determinate the program vision and he could be togehter with Franccois Maspero to cooperate and learn with nomes like: Jean Dresch, Claude Batallion, Jean Tricart, Claude Raffesttin, Gerard Chaliand, Beatrice Gibelin, Michel Voucher, Pascal Lorot,  Michel Korinman, Roger Bruner, Jean Bernard Racine[4].

The character of the magazine was connect with the traditional french regional school, created by Vidal de La Blanche, seen as pluritematic person taking in account his habilities of approach whatever question of modern world without many limitation. The act or criterion for election, was according the redactor  esencial and actual policy.

In the pages of the magazine there were a series of articles devoted substantially individual part of the world or choosen countries (Middle east, latin countries, East of Europe, Russia, Korea, Afganistan, Paquistan, Iraq and Israel) by the fact of presenting usefull problems (water, food, condiction of existence, population). Giving attention in conflicts zones. Trying to understand his internal and external reasons his course in time and space and after his meaning in international arena. In the beginning of the magazine evoluated regional conflict in context of confrontation between progressive powers in imperialist camp. Time after, this hot line had been erased as well his elimination after the end of cold war. Trated not only the politic issues but the results of social-economic disproportion. Consisted mostly of find out the better condition of goods of the population, specially the spheres of poverty and backwardness. Intended too to ethinic differences (nationalities, languages and religion),social level and ecological condition. All of them accoding th author had geopolitic means. By using this view poitn without any kind of sistematic limitation.

The discution of the problematic geographic-historic (according the reactor of the magazine in case), should be useful, in fact that should show in what consists to undertake the project in order to avoid relatively resolve the of comes up politic crises, military, social or economic. Most of the Lacoste’s colaboratores, represented left wing view point, but just in 70 and 80 XX century, became ortodox principles marksism, decision that carred up some consequences like atack of comunism party sympathizers, grouped around “L’ Humanite” magazine.

Great change took place after the end of Soviet Union the separation of Soviet relation with Jugoslavia. The job of this new redaction was mainly to explain the expectation of these politic events. Desintegration of the Soviet Union or block of east and end of the bipolar world, enforced a new topic. The redaction of the magazine, revealed to many elasticity i fast reacted to the changement of the geopolitic situation.

Undoubtedly the magazine “Herodote” was populary knowlegde of geographic-historic. Became a canalizator and animator of discutions between academics representatants of differents disciplines, thank that, many issues were solved and explained. The service of the magazine, specially his fundator, was  a complet reabilitationand intelectual legitimation. Just for being sure, even these who where against at the beginnig, sorrounded after and gave the real attention and respect  to the magazine, left wing is one of the eg. Where between them named as “the main goal of war agression and domination”. Became a subject interdiscipline, that time by time used took knowlegde from geography, history, etnography, demography, sociology  and economic, making them as auxiliaries sciences, shows the politic relation between the countries and nations.  

Bibliography

Eberhardt, Piotr Yves Lacoste jako geograf i geopolityk strona 243-244 (Instytut i przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN, 00-818, Warszawa, ul. Twarda 51/55

La geographie, isto serve em primeiro lugar para fazer a guerra V. Jose ( Tłumaczenia czasopism La geographie- Paulo-Brasil s.1)

Bembe, Miguel and Massuela, Alexandre Caderno de Geopolítica e Geoestratégia s. 30,31,32 (Universidade Agostinho Neto  Faculdade de Cièncias Sociais-Faculdade de Ciências Sociais)-Luanda-Angola

Eberhardt, Piotr Yves Lacoste jako geograf i geopolityk strona 271 (Instytut i przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN, 00-818, Warszawa, ul. Twarda 51/55)

[1] Eberhardt, Piotr Yves Lacoste jako geograf i geopolityk strona 243-244 (Instytut i przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN, 00-818, Warszawa, ul. Twarda 51/55)

[2] La geographie, isto serve em primeiro lugar para fazer a guerra V. Jose ( Tłumaczenia czasopism La geographie- São Paulo-Brasil s.1)

[3] Eberhardt, Piotr Yves Lacoste jako geograf i geopolityk strona 271 (Instytut i przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN, 00-818, Warszawa, ul. Twarda 51/55)

[4] Eberhardt, Piotr Yves Lacoste jako geograf i geopolityk s 272-273 (Instytut i przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN, 00-818, Warszawa, ul. Twarda 51/55)