Vis a Vis

As many economists, political scientists, and policy makers reflect on growing economic inequalities dividing world populations today, a question often arises: how did we get here? Why is it that such significant wealth gaps grew over the years, both within countries and among different regions of the world? Many experts turn to history for answers,…

85 years ago, Louis Leprince Ringuet created the first research lab at École Polytechnique – a physics lab dedicated to research on the atom, cosmic rays and subatomic particles. Today, École Polytechnique boasts 23 research centers staffed by 1600 researchers in fields as diverse as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and social sciences. Most recently,…

Winston Churchill famously said: “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Today, almost four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many people, throughout the world, are baffled by the long-term goals of the Russian regime and by its internal workings. Historically, France provided a successful model for understanding Russia. Much of…

One of the mottos of the Enlightenment was “sapere aude”: Dare to know. With this motto, Enlightenment thinkers like Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau rejected fanaticism, conventional thinking, and, in many cases, the authority of the Church, submission to religious principles and belief in the afterlife. As they faced death, therefore, it seemed natural that these…

Over the last few decades, Sciences Po has significantly increased its footprint in research, becoming one of the world’s leading institutions in social science research. The Sciences Po ecosystem is structured around five disciplines: law, economics, history, political science, and sociology. Research priorities include: the analysis of social policy; economic transformations; social inequalities; environmental transition;…