Alexandre del Valle | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marc d'Anna (1968-09-04)September 4, 1968 (age 56) Perpignan, France |
| Nationality | French-Italian |
| Education | Institute of Political Studies, Paris Institute of Political Studies, Aix-en-Provence |
| Occupation | WriterGeopolitics |
| Political party | Union for a Popular Movement(2002-2012) Rally for the Republic(Formerly) |
| Website | AlexandredelValle.com |
Marc d'Anna (born September 4, 1968),[1] writing under the pen nameAlexandre del Valle,[2] is aFranco-Italiangeopolitologist,writer,professor,columnist, andpolitical commentator.
Del Valle specializes ingeopolitics. He is known primarily for his analysis ofIslamic extremism, and his criticism ofRecep Tayyip Erdoğan's policies. Del Valle is a proponent of the PanWest paradigm, which is the cooperation betweenthe West andRussia againstradical Islamism. He coined the term "red–green–brown alliance" in 2002.[3]
Del Valle focuses onIslamic extremism,geopolitical threats,civilizational conflicts, andterrorism, as well as Mediterranean issues such asTurkey's proposed accession to the European Union. Del Valle wrote oninternational relations and geopolitics of theArab-Muslim world.[4]
Del Valle was born inMarseille, France, on September 6, 1968,[1] toPieds-Noirs parents. His father was aSicilian who settled first inTunisia, and later inAlgeria andMarseille (Southern France). His mother came from aSpaniard family partly settled inOran,Algeria, and later inMarseille.[4] He was orphaned at age 4, and spent most of his childhood in a foster home where he grew up in a multicultural environment.[5]
In 1993, he graduated from theInstitute of Political Studies, Aix-en-Provence, where he obtained a DEA (Master of Advanced Studies) in military history, security and defense. He took interest in political science and geopolitical analysis when he joinedSciences Po Paris, where he prepared for theENA exam.[5]
In 2015, he obtained a DEA (Master of Advanced Studies) from theUniversity of Milan in the history of political doctrines and institutions. He earned a Ph.D. in contemporary history, from thePaul Valéry University Montpellier 3.[6]
Marc d'Anna joined the General Secretariat of National Defense (SGDSN) in 1997. He underwent a security investigation, after which he was granted secret-defense clearance. He worked as an editor-analyst at theFacts and Trends Letter of the International and Strategic Affairs section. He worked in the territorial and international civil service before founding his consulting firm inBrussels.[5]
He is ateacher ingeopolitics at Sup de Co La Rochelle and at IPAG[7] and works at the European University of Rome[8] and at the International Institute of Geopolitics.[citation needed] He was an associate researcher at the Institut Choiseul until 2014,[9] and co-founder of the Mediterranean Geopolitical Observatory (based inCyprus).[10]
He was a columnist forNouvelle Liberté (Marseille),La Une,Le Figaro Magazine,Le Figaro,Le Spectacle du Monde,Israel Magazine,Liberal (Italy),France-Soir, andAtlantico. He writes regularly forAtlantico,[11]Le Figaro[12] andValeurs Actuelles.[13]
He collaborated on geopolitical reviews,Herodotus,Strategic,Geostrategic,Nova Storica,Risk,International Policy,Outre-Terre,Daedalos Papers,Geopolitical Affairs, andGeoeconomics. He focuses on the geopolitics of the Arab-Muslim world.[14]
He is a member of various think tanks, including the Daedalos Institute of Geopolitics.[14] He is a director of the consultancy firm and think tank Géopol Consultings.
In December 2019, Del Valle was consulted, along with Emmanuel Razavi ofGlobalGeoNews, on radical Islamism, by French Senate Vice PresidentNathalie Delattre, as a geopolitologist, consultant, and essayist, for the Commission of Inquiry on Islamist Radicalization and the Means of Combating It.[15]
In 2022, in his preface toLa mondialisation dangereuse, the geopolitologist and former president ofLa Sorbonne Jacques Soppelsa presented Del Valle as "a representative of the new generation of geopoliticians who have nothing to envy their American counterparts". He stated that he was deepening his analysis of globalization, too often understood as "non-frontier", in "an innovative and counter-intuitive logic that would surprise his readers and detractors".[16][17]
In 1991, while studying at the IEP in Aix-en-Provence, Del Valle joined theRPRUDF and then theRPF ofCharles Pasqua andPhilippe de Villiers.
In 1999, he signed the petition "Europeans want peace", initiated by the collective "No to war" to oppose the military intervention of NATO in Serbia.[18]
In 2001 he joined theUMP with Rachid Kaci.[19]
In November 2002, he co-founded, with his friend Rachid Kaci, La Droite Libre, a liberal-conservative current, which is, according toLe Monde, "a current situated very much to the right within the UMP, and with positions that are resolutely pro-Israeli and not very Islamophile.[20] On November 17, 2002, during the constituent assembly of theUMP, Rachid Kaci and he, under a pseudonym, ran for the vice-presidency of theUMP with, as opponents,Alain Juppé orNicolas Dupont-Aignan.[21]
In 2012 he participated in an internationalcounter-jihad conference in Brussels, billed as the "International conference for free speech & human rights".[22] In 2017, he participated in a conference organized bySalvo PoglieseMEP and hisEuropean People's Party group.[23]
In 2019, he spoke at a conference organized byCostas MavridesMEP, a member of theProgressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.[24]
Del Valle's first book,Islamism and the United States: An Alliance against Europe,[25] sparked controversy in France and in the United States. In the book, Del Valle claimed the U.S. government was deliberately using Islam to destroy Europe.[25] This theory was criticized byBat Ye'or in theMiddle East Quarterly published in September 1998.[25][better source needed] Although Ye'or reproached Del Valle for his hostility to theClinton administration, she congratulated him for his attempt to "courageously expose the dangers of Islamism."[25]
In another article published in theMiddle East Quarterly in Spring 2000,[7][better source needed] French-American geopoliticianLaurent Murawiec characterized Del Valle as hostile to Muslims and criticized his analysis of the United States' pro-Muslim strategy during the Cold War. In response,[26] Del Valle wrote that "history and the tragedy of September 11 have proven me right." He claimed that Murawiec omitted to mention that his later books, such asLe Totalitarisme Islamiste a l'assaut des démocraties, were labeled both "pro-American and pro-Zionist."[27]
Del Valle later wrote articles published inLe Figaro andPolitique Internationale that called for a union to be formed with the United States and in which he denounced all forms of anti-Western and anti-American feelings. Murawiec wrote an essay that also deplored the present pro-Saudi and pro-Islamist strategy and political correctness of American presidents who never dared nominatingSaudi Arabia andWahhabism as the real enemy and supporters of radical Islam.[28]
In 2002, Del Valle was criticized by far-right, left-wing[29] and extreme-left magazines such asLe Monde Diplomatique[30] and the pro-Palestinian and anti-ZionistMRAP.[31] Some extreme-right movements, believing that Del Valle had been close to their visions in his early writings on Islamism and America, moved to denounce hisZionism and his close relations with the Jewish community.[32]
In an article published in April 2002,[33]French far-left organisationRas L'front claimed that Del Valle had originally set out its arguments infar right-wing circles, especially during lectures at meetings of theultra right or theNew Right. Del Valle rejected the claims and brought the matter to the courts.[34] These trials with peripeteias eventually resulted in a decision from the 11th Chamber of theCourt of appeal of Paris in 2005, which dismissed Del Valle, who carried out an action for defamation against Ras L'front.[35]
In two other trials, Del Valle and his lawyer,Gilles-William Goldnadel, the French President of "Droit à la Sécurité" and "France Israël association" (who also wasOriana Fallaci's lawyer in France), won two other cases: one in 2006 againstMRAP, an anti-racist organization led by French communist Mouloud Aounit, and a second againstCanal+ (TV Channel), in 2007 (17th court of Paris).[36][better source needed] The 17th court of Paris dismissed MRAP, who had published in 2003[37] a special report on anti-Arabs, Zionists and Far right networks in France. This MRAP Report accused Del Valle and other intellectuals such asGuy Millière [fr], Michel Darmon (former France-Israel's President) or Gilles-William Goldnadel asislamophobes and for supporting Zionist organizations such as the Union of French Jewish Employers and Professionals, Likoud,KKL, orBnai Brith. The 17th Court of Appeal decided that MRAP did not have the right to accuse Del Valle of islamophobia and was dismissed after having tried to have Del Valle and Guy Millière condemned fordefamation.[36]
Del Valle acknowledges that he made errors making speeches with controversial intellectuals in the context of the presentations of his books. But he claimed that his political "godfathers" wereGaullists and former popular dissidents such asAlain Griotteray [fr],Pierre Marie Gallois, the former nuclear and geopolitical adviser ofCharles De Gaulle, Gabriel Kaspereit andJean Matteoli.[38]
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