The ''Cercle de l'Oratoire'' ( French for "Circle of the Oratory") is a French

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

created a short time after the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. Since 2006, it edits a journal, ''Le Meilleur des mondes''. The Circle is led by the journalist Michel Taubmann, who is also in charge of the news at

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

-Paris, and his wife Florence, a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

at the Temple de l'oratoire du Louvre and vice-president of the ''Amitié judéo-chrétienne'' group (Judeo-Christian Friendship). Many of its members ( André Glucksmann, Pascal Bruckner, Romain Goupil, etc.) and the ''Meilleur des mondes'' journal supported the US invasion of Iraq, a minority viewpoint in France.

''Le Meilleur des mondes''

The journal ''Le Meilleur des mondes'' is published by the éditions Denoël and headed by Michel Taubmann. It launched a first

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

in favor of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

' intervention in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Two years later, it published another petition in ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' supporting the US invasion of Iraq. This journal has been described by some in the French media as the "Voice of America" or as a gathering point of French neoconservatives (''néo-conservateurs à la française''). The journal, however, rejects these labels, describing itself as "anti-

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

". It considers radical Islam as a "real danger", and claims that "there has never been so much anti-Jewish propaganda."Interview of Michel Taubmann by Anne-Juliette Brugière for the websit
Massorti.com
15 October 2006

Composition

*Several

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

s such as André Glucksmann and Pascal Bruckner *Film makers such as Romain Goupil, Jacques Tarnero and Raphaël Glucksmann *Historians such as

Stéphane Courtois Stéphane Courtois (; born 25 November 1947) is a French historian and university professor, a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), professor at the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies (ICES) in La ...

, Max Lagarrigue and Ilios Yannakakis. * Mohammed Abdi, secretary general of the NGO '' Ni Putes Ni Soumises'' * Jacky Mamou, former President of

Médecins du Monde ''Médecins du monde'' (MdM; ), or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which seeks to provide emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates for an end to health ine ...

(Doctors of the World), * Pierre-André Taguieff, research director at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

* Thérèse Delpech, director of strategic affairs at the '' Commissariat à l'énergie atomique'' (CEA) and researcher at the

CERI Ceri () is a hamlet (''frazione'') of the ''comune'' of Cerveteri, in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio (central Italy). It occupies a fortified plateau of tuff at a short distance from the city of Cerveteri. History Inhabited before the 7 ...

Institute * Bruno Tertrais, former director of the civil affairs commission at the NATO Assembly and also a CERI researcher * Frédéric Encel, a geopolitist specialist of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

* Antonio Elorza, a political sciences professor at the University of Madrid *Writers Olivier Rolin and

Marc Weitzmann Marc Weitzmann (born 1959) is a French journalist and novelist. The former editor-in-chief of ''Les Inrockuptibles'', he hosts a weekly radio-show, Signe des Temps (Signs of the Times) on the public radio France Culture, the French NPR, and is a r ...

*Journalists Cécilia Gabizon, specialist of Islam issues at the '' Figaro'' newspaper, Elisabeth Schemla, founder of the website proche-orient.info, Antoine Vitkine, journalist at Arte TV, Jean-Luc Mouton, director of the

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

weekly ''Réforme'', Violaine de Marsangy, a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

journalist and former responsible of logistics for the NGO '' Action contre la faim'' in North Korea and Indonesia, Claire Brière-Blanchet *Lawyer Michel Laval.

References

External links

''Le Meilleur des Mondes''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cercle De L'oratoire 2001 establishments in France Think tanks established in 2001 Conservatism in France Neoconservatism Political and economic think tanks based in France Think tanks based in France