Special issue. Gaza, Ukraine, Taiwan, Greenland, etc. The list of theaters of war and tensions continues to grow. And if each presents specificities, all announce the return of imperial rhetoric. Under the cover of a neonationalism which takes on the appearance of projections beyond state borders, competition between powers – classic or new, such as Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) – takes place in a world in ecological, technological and geopolitical transition. A world where the West is contested by the Global South, and where digital giants, alongside other multinationals, are eating away at the sovereignty of States while dreaming of a universe of networks without limits or constraints.
Because it is indeed a resurgence of imperial ambitions that we are witnessing. And if, as the historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle wrote, all empires end up perishing, they nevertheless leave in the memory of their heirs the intact memory of domination and power. A tenacious memory which, if it no longer takes the institutional form of yesteryear – there no longer exists, at this time, an empire on the grid of States –, continues to mark the practices and imaginations, if not of the elites, at least of those in power. The latter persist in thinking about the world in terms of the balance of power and size. And at a time when the architecture of international peace sees its foundations shaken by leaders nostalgic for their past prestige or eager to redesign the world order according to their own interests, the return of the “imperial software” is intriguing as well as worrying.
Question of territory
To better understand current geostrategic challenges, The World offers an atlas of 40 maps of the new empires and its emperors: the America of Donald Trump, the Vladimir Putin-Xi Jinping tandem, the influence of rising powers like India, a shaken Europe and the challenges of margins and flows in the world. This division into five notebooks highlights in particular the return of the question of territory in international relations and the fight for control of natural resources and major lines of communication. Each of these five parts opens with an interview with an expert or researcher specializing in the issue. The entire issue begins with a long exchange with the historian of empires, the medievalist Gabriel Martinez-Gros for whom “the time is imperial!” »
The Infographics service of World has taken care to provide readers, in the smallest details, with all the reading keys necessary to better anticipate the power challenges of the decades to come, at the heart of this 21e century. Because, it is well known, the best way to point out these logics of domination is to start by understanding the world as the powerful represent it. In other words, it is up to each and every one to seize these strategic maps which outline the contours of the new imperial time, to better decipher the mental maps of the new emperors.
“40 cards to understand the new emperors”, a special issue of “Le Monde” – November-December 2025, 116 pages, 13.50 euros. Available at newsstands or for sale online.
