Cnam and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme sign research collaboration agreement

October 10, 2019 saw the official signing of a research collaboration agreement, an important partnership that will bind researchers from the emerging Security Defense team and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH) for 3 years.

Olivier Faron, General Administrator of the Cnam, and Michel Wieviorka, sociologist, Director of the EHESS and President of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH), signed a research collaboration agreement on Thursday, October 10, 2019, linking the Cnam and the FMSH for a period of 5 years, focusing on research into terrorism, crime and cybercrime, security and defense.

This prestigious collaboration will be structuring for the emerging Security and Defense team created in June 2018.

The agreement in detail 

The collaborative research project on new threats Security Defense, which constitutes the EESD, consists in federating internal, national and international research centers specialized in the study of terrorist, criminal, security, defense, intelligence and violence exit issues, in order to contribute more effectively to understanding and combating such ever-changing threats. The synergies and reflections arising from a transdisciplinary dialogue are both essential to the effective study of phenomena as complex as terrorism and radicalization, and a sine qua non for the future success of the global fight against these new threats. This dialogue takes place in close collaboration with operational players, both institutional and industrial.

In terms of research, through its own structure for the Cnam, and via its partners for the FMSH, the group will focus on the following themes and issues:

• Methods, the birth and rise to power of terrorist networks in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, their financing and ideological inspirations. These studies should reveal whether the advancement and operational evolution of these networks is simply the result of self-learning processes and/or whether notable institutional influences are also detectable.
• Mechanisms for the spread of radical Islam and vectors for the expansion of the terrorist threat. While it is essential to remember the sources of certain populations' adherence to the Takfiri Salafist ideological matrix, and to keep in mind the main foundations in the current “ideological offering” of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and their affiliates, we must not lose sight of the analysis of proselytizing mechanisms that can weave bridges and connect radicalized environments to armed terrorist groups.
• Threats linked to cyberspace are a priority in any strategic thinking on the security and defense of a territory and its population in the 21st century.
• The social and psychological mechanisms for spreading violence and radical Islam. Among these issues, a close look is taken at the analysis of jihadist groups' propaganda and digital recruitment techniques, their frames of reference and the finesse of their use of psychological levers for radicalization and, finally, the acquisition of new means of cyber-offensives, encryption for example, is to be followed particularly closely.

The Cnam and the FMSH will be working together to exchange research expertise and best practices, in particular around research activities on radicalization and exiting violence.

The emerging Security and defense team

The emerging Defense Security team (EE SD) brings together multidisciplinary teams to meet the demands of major clients (industry, Europe, ministries). The criminal and terrorist threats facing virtually all countries on all continents call for greater national and international scientific cooperation to understand the roots of crime, terrorism and the transition to violence, as well as all the vectors for their financing and propagation (cybercrime, delinquency).

This research platform brings together researchers in the social sciences and mathematics-computing to provide truly multidisciplinary responses to national and international defense and security issues. This multi-disciplinarity is illustrated by the joint management of two researchers.
Transversal within Cnam, the emerging team brings together Cnam skills from different national teaching teams: EPN 3 Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Automation, Measurement, EPN 5 Computer Science, EPN 6 Mathematics and Statistics, EPN 10 Accounting, Controlling, Auditing, EPN 12 Health Addiction, EPN 14 Law, EPN 15 Strategies and EPN 16 Innovation, in the fields of safety, security and defense, extended to national and international partners in the terrorism/anti-terrorism, radicalization/radicalization network set up with the Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH).