The analysis of democracy, its advances, its new forms, as well as threats to it, are the focus of this new Cogito. This issue also examines a series of public policies: higher education, social policies, the environment, and ethics. It also looks at the reception of fake news on social networks and of decision-making. Finally, historical perspectives are provided on colonial cultures and the birth of medical emergencies. Enjoy the read!

Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, both researchers at the Sciences Po Center for International Studies (CERI), were arrested in Iran in early June 2019. Since then, they have been held in detention without valid legal grounds. On 31 January, 2020, the CERI organised a conference, "Captives Without Cause", aimed at contributing to the mobilisation for their release and raising awareness on the various issues (diplomatic, political, intellectual and human) linked to their detention.

In an issue devoted to the challenging governance of finance, our researchers might have dwelled on reviewing and analyzing the financial crises in recent memory, or even looked into the future with a lot of frightening forecasts. But since the interest of research lies in going off the beaten track, here they present their most recent research, focused on overlooked or forgotten subjects, and shed light on the obscurities of an often misunderstood world.
Happy reading!

Jeanne Hagenbach, a CNRS researcher at the Department of Economics, won, in the framework of a very selective competition, funding from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant) to conduct her research project "Motivated Reading of Evidence ". Presentation.