Cédric Humair, La Suisse et les Empires. Affirmation d’une puissance économique (1857-1914), Neuchâtel, Éditions Livreo-Alphil, 2024.

Comment la Suisse est-elle devenue une puissance économique d’envergure mondiale?

La situation économique et politique actuelle de la Suisse a de quoi étonner. Pourquoi et comment ce petit pays résiste-t-il au processus d’intégration européenne? Pourquoi la Confédération refuse-t-elle d’abandonner sa politique de neutralité? Comment expliquer son insolente réussite économique?

Destiné à un large public, cet ouvrage de synthèse de Cédric Humair (Section d’histoire) a pour objectif d’esquisser des réponses à ces questions en mobilisant la perspective historique.

Faisant suite à un premier tome consacré à la période 1813-1857 – La Suisse et les puissances européennes. Aux sources de l’indépendance –, ce livre met la focale sur les relations extérieures de la Suisse entre 1857 et 1914, une période cruciale dans la constitution d’une puissance économique sans commune mesure avec la superficie et la population du pays. La mondialisation du commerce et l’intensification de l’impérialisme européen permettent alors d’établir les fondements d’un empire économique d’envergure planétaire.

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About the author

Nadia Sikorsky

Nadia Sikorsky was born and raised in Moscow. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University and went on to complete her postgraduate studies there, earning a PhD in History. She spent 13 years at UNESCO, first in Paris and then in Geneva. After serving as Director of Communications at Green Cross International, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, she launched NashaGazeta.ch in 2007, Switzerland’s first Russian-language online daily newspaper.

In 2022, Nadia Sikorsky was named to Le Temps’ Forum des 100, which brings together individuals who, in the newspaper’s view, have “significantly contributed to the success of French-speaking Switzerland”, from across public life, business, politics, science and culture.

After 18 years at the helm of NashaGazeta.ch, Nadia Sikorsky decided to devote herself to what had always held a special place in her work as a journalist: culture in all its diversity. This led to the creation of Russian Accent, a trilingual cultural blog in Russian, French and English, born in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland, which has become her second home and whose multiculturalism and multilingualism have helped shape the character of this new project.

At the heart of the project is the perspective of a European of Russian origin, drawing on more than 35 years of professional experience and a deep knowledge of both cultural traditions. Nadia Sikorsky sees her role as that of a cultural mediator between the two. The title of the blog, Russian Accent, reflects this idea: the accent is neither a linguistic barrier nor a political position, but a distinctive cultural imprint within a European context.

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