French politologist unveils “Empire in the Mirror” in Chisinau

The French politologist Florent Parmentier launched on Tuesday in Chisinau his book titled “The Empire in the Mirror. {Superpower Strategies of the United States and Russia}”, which he wrote together with Didier Chaudet and Benoit Pelopidas. Speaking at the book launch, which took place at Cartier's Bookstore 9, Parmentier said the volume is an analysis of the phenomenon of imperialism, meant to expose the power policies used by the US and Russia. “Our goal was to understand the meaning of an empire as represented by the US and Russia. Because, if we understand their reasons from inside, we can predict with more or less accuracy the tendencies of the policies which they could adopt later”, he said. Historian Igor Casu said the analysis of the French politologists pays increased attention to the spiritual and religious dimension, “because an empire is first of all an ideology which earns its legitimacy through the redeeming and civilizing role it undertakes”. Another Moldovan historian, Andrei Cusco, praised the authors for their unbiasedness in treating the phenomenon of imperialism. “Here in this region it is difficult to forget the negative aspects of an empire. But it is commendable the initiative to offer an analytic, academic interpretation of this phenomenon, without using political clichés. It is not a rehabilitation of the concept of an empire, but rather a distant analysis of the structures where the phenomenon occurs”, said Cusco. Florent Parmentier is a PhD candidate in political science at the Paris-based Political Science Institute, graduate from Sciences Po Paris, and a former lecturer at the Chisinau-based Academy of Foreign Relations and Diplomacy. He is also a political analyst with the French portal Moldavie.fr and the author of the book titled “La Moldavie a la croisee des chemins” (Moldova at Crossroads). The Moldovan version of “The Empire in the Mirror” is published by Cartier.