Dr. Yannick Harrel

  In July 2023 and again in August 2024, China announced restrictions on the export of germanium, gallium, and then antimony to Western countries. This decision, which was not the first of its kind by the Middle Kingdom, nevertheless takes on added significance in a tense global context with the United States. The decision also recognizes the industrial and logistical maturity of a country that knows it is robust enough to oppose Western interests. Three critical materials for Western industrial activity : Germanium (Ge, number 32), gallium (Ga, number 31), antimony (Sb, number 51): these materials with such singular names have hardly made the news in recent months. This is all the more damaging given their essential role in the ecological and digital transitions that Western societies have imposed on themselves, as well as in the development of contemporary civil and military technologies. Because these materials play crucial roles in several sectors due to their uni...

  The study of mobilities is fascinating in that it highlights the foundations of a civilization, both through the mobilities themselves and the ecosystem they generate and require. However, today’s subject is approached from a more philosophical than technical or logistical perspective. Through extensive analysis of mobilities, it quickly became apparent that the underlying trend of the 2000s-2010s was the exact opposite of the 1960s-1970s, when the goal was to expand and streamline traffic routes in France.   If Georges Pompidou, a man of letters and head of state, were to return among his people, he would likely echo his outburst from that evening in 1966, when a young, ambitious mission officer (and future president) named Jacques Chirac rushed to have him sign a slew of decrees: “Stop bothering the French! There are too many laws, too many texts, too many regulations in this country! It’s suffocating! Let them live a little, and you’ll see everything will go better! Leave...