Meet the Thinker: Mathieu Rigouste

Mathieu Rigouste is an independent social scientist, activist, and filmmaker, specialising in the historical evolution of armies, police forces, prisons, and borders — as well as in the forms of resistance that confront them today. In his latest hard-hitting essay, La guerre globale contre les peuples (2025), he analyses how imperial mechanisms shape contemporary security-oriented societies. At a time when surveillance policies are intensifying on both sides of the Franco-Belgian border, we welcome him for an essential discussion on these dynamics, their roots, and their consequences, moderated by Estelle Depris.