In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon recounts the evolution of this very political place that is Inalco with Etienne Girard, head of the Company department of L’Express.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation), Margaux Lannuzel (writing), Charlotte Baris (editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Picture credits: Stéphane de Sakutin/AFP
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
How to listen to a podcast? Follow the leader.
Xavier Yvon: When I talk about La Loupe to someone who has never listened to it, I like to say that it is the podcast of transformations. It’s a word that perfectly reflects the promise of our episodes: whether it’s a question of geopolitics, scientific rationality or technology, we are always keen to tell you about a changing world. Sometimes that involves time travel, to understand the influence of what happened yesterday… But it’s always to better shed light on the present and above all to plan for the future.
I am telling you this so that you do not think that our subject of the day is a little far from our basics. In this episode, we are going to talk about espionage, “Bureau des Légendes” style recruitment and clandestine recordings. All in the setting of a great French school, the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Inalco.
In the 1970s, the place was a recruitment pool for the secret services of France and elsewhere, in particular the famous KGB. Today, geopolitical balances have changed. In many places in the world they seem to waver. But the students of Inalco continue to be approached by the DGSE as the most authoritarian regimes to become, perhaps, the spies of tomorrow.
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