Claude Revel is professor and director of the SKEMA Centre for Global Intelligence and Influence Centre Global Intelligence & Influence de SKEMA-GIISK).
Her new book "La France, un pays sous influences ?" comes out in June 2012.
The book (editor’s introduction):
Influence is an invisible power game: worldwide norms for good universities or the best country for investment, praise then criticism of biofuels, States controlled by private agencies, Facebook and Twitter in the Arab revolutions, the success of the concept of sustainable development etc ; these are just a few examples of the many that illustrate this power game at work.
Influence has already reshuffled the cards of power over the last thirty years. Some, States, companies and NGO’s – have been able to grab the opportunity; others have not. Where does France lie in this situation?
Soft power, advocacy, lobbying, think-tanks, storytelling, public and business diplomacy… there is no need to go looking for obscure ways of exerting influence. The global system of governance that has been set up makes it easier and more legitimate for all sorts of direct and indirect influences to be exerted on our way of life and our opinions.
This work of impeccable rigor deciphers and analyses the influences that form and manipulate us. Beyond this, it argues for a world of non-standardized thinking, and gives us clues and tools to help us take action.