For this rentrée, I invite you to take a 360-degree look at the humanitarian and geopolitical situation.
To do so, we have called on leading figures, each of whose contributions serves as a step introducing the next.
In such a troubled context, we invited Bernard Kouchner to assess the progress made and to look to the future. Co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde, former Minister of Health and later of Foreign Affairs, his testimony is invaluable.
First comes lucidity, when he observes the questioning of human rights, democracy, and Europe, the institutional weakening of humanitarian action, and the resurgence of aggressive authoritarian empires.
Then comes mobilization, with his support for Ukraine, his assertion of the need to arm against the risk of war in Europe, and his call to “Stop the war in Gaza,” where famine is being used as a weapon of war.
Finally, his conviction: “let us continue to believe in humanitarian action,” and, faced with the lack of funding, let us innovate, invent, and pursue humanitarian and development aid. The flame still burns despite setbacks!
Reinventing humanitarian action.
He himself titled his interview “the glorious years”! A natural transition to the following article by Olivier Routeau, Director of Operations at Première Urgence Internationale, who calls the past thirty years the “golden age of humanitarian action”!
With great insight, he identifies three main reasons for the current decline in state support for humanitarian aid. First, the end of a long period of continuous prosperity (the Trente Glorieuses), then the return of high-intensity war in Europe which monopolizes attention and resources, and finally, the shift from distant humanitarian action to local humanitarian action.
“The software has changed,” says Olivier Routeau. The future of humanitarianism is also being played out on the level of ideas. His proposals: safeguard the fundamentals, preserve capacities, and broaden the ability to act by betting on reinvention driven by commitment and testimony.
Saving lives.
Reinventing humanitarian action daily in the field is what Anouchka Finker, Director of La Chaîne de l’Espoir, recounts in her report on her mission in Ukraine. Arriving in Kyiv under a rain of Russian drones and missiles, we are with her alongside Polina, Mykhailo, and surgical teams who spare no effort to save lives.
From this recent mission, three vital priorities emerge: train surgeons in damage control, that is, stabilizing casualties at the front and organizing their transfer to the rear; prevent infection and amputation by treating more effectively and quickly; and finally, restore available hospital equipment through technician training.
This is the mission of La Chaîne de l’Espoir, which has already trained 270 Ukrainian surgeons with Professor François Pons, a volunteer, former military officer, and Director of the École du Val-de-Grâce. One can be both a volunteer and highly skilled—and effective.
After Bernard Kouchner and Olivier Routeau, Anouchka Finker again shows us that humanitarian action, in partnership on the ground, remains at the heart of the mission to save lives and foster hope.
Anticipating crises.
At this stage of our 360-degree overview, humanitarian actors must also better anticipate and project into a world of growing confrontation. That is the exercise Pierre Brunet undertook by reading for us “The World Ahead as Seen by the CIA.” This unexpected comparison may surprise! But humanitarian foresight can indeed draw on the many sources of geopolitical analysis.
After noting that this report reflects American interests and that its omissions—such as climate change—say much about the new Trump administration, the author selected a series of threats to be considered from a humanitarian perspective: growth of criminal organizations, human trafficking, persistent terrorist threats (ISIS Khorasan, the Sahel-Saharan band), Chinese pressure on supply routes and logistics chains, risks to critical infrastructure, vulnerabilities in information systems. The report also stresses the risk of internal conflict in Syria.
As for the war in Ukraine, the analysis foresees that “the longer the war lasts in Ukraine, the more Ukraine will lose…”—an assessment echoing the words of French General Thierry Burkhard, former Chief of Defense Staff: he fears “that Russia may be able to hold out five minutes longer than we can”! A sobering thought.
As Pierre Brunet concludes: “humanitarians are not spared from any peril, and will have to act—or reinvent themselves—in order to remain relevant.” Well said.
Humanitarian action in geopolitics with Gérard Chaliand.
Our 360-degree overview continues in this editorial with Gérard Chaliand, who left us on August 20 after a full life. In friendship and recognition for his immense contribution to geopolitics and to understanding peoples and wars, we are republishing here an interview that appeared in Défis Humanitaires and remains highly relevant for grasping contemporary history and global dynamics.
Whether it be the role of nationalism in decolonization, the dramatic consequences of leaders’ lack of historical culture, demographics as a factor of power but one that also overwhelms economic efforts in Africa, the U.S. program of pushing the former USSR back to the borders of old Russia, or Donald Trump’s conviction that the essence of international relations lies primarily in power relations rather than cooperation or multilateralism—
As for humanitarian action, Gérard Chaliand rightly believed it would face immense challenges, as crises multiplied and disorder, far from diminishing, continued to spread.
It is strange that states are cutting precisely their humanitarian and development budgets now—at a time when international aid has never been more necessary. History will remember this as a grave mistake, even if other priorities demand considerable effort to defend freedom, sovereignty, and independence. But these are complementary, not contradictory.
Clarity of vision.
It was General Thierry Burkhard (Libération, Thursday, August 28, 2025) who observed that “…from Ukraine to Gaza via Sudan, the use of force has become the tool for settling disputes” and that France, like all European countries, must take risks in the face of looming dangers.
To confront adversity that grows and threatens, we must first be aware of it and ready to face it. Yet it seems that the dangerous geopolitical context in which we live is barely, if at all, taken into account by political leaders, as if we lived on a remote island cut off from the rest of the world.
Yet, a recent IFOP study with Jérôme Fourquet on “The French and Civic-Mindedness” shows that 84% of our fellow citizens note a rise in individualism and growing indifference to public affairs, while a strong majority remain deeply attached to national symbols and their transmission. “Living together” and the “values of the Republic” take shape in a country with its people, history, and future.
Let’s mobilize with Défis Humanitaires.
Finally, to close this rentrée overview, we invite you to read the testimonies of major actors: Cyprien Fabre salutes the passion and tenacity of Défis Humanitaires, Alexia Tafanelli describes the journal as a vibrant space, a catalyst of ideas, a driver of solidarity. As Benoit Miribel puts it: “Humanitarian action remains a challenge. We needed a review like Défis Humanitaires”—a publication read by all at Triangle Génération Humanitaire, according to its director Stanislas Bonnet.
The collapse of humanitarian funding and its disastrous consequences, the extreme tensions in international relations, the human tragedy in Gaza, the war at our doorstep in Ukraine—all validate more than ever the mission of our journal Défis Humanitaires, which must adapt to this changing era and reinvent itself.
To meet this challenge, we need your advice, your suggestions, your proposals, and more than ever, your personal support. Write to us at contact@defishumanitaires.com and support us today (make a donation). A big thank you. We will return to this in the October edition.
I wish you a pleasant reading of the articles in this edition I have just presented—and thank you for sharing them around you.
Alain Boinet
Première Urgence interntionale
I invite you to read these interviews and articles published in the edition :