When the term "sustainable development" entered everyday speech it lost its clarity and precision. The result is that it now tends to obscure rather than illuminate the real issues it raises - particularly because most discussions about sustainable development are centred on environmental questions and not on economic, social or cultural issues.Yet the problems it raises are vast: sustainable development means figuring out how to limit environmental  risks and ensuring the renewal ...

When the term "sustainable development" entered everyday speech it lost its clarity and precision. The result is that it now tends to obscure rather than illuminate the real issues it raises - particularly because most discussions about sustainable development are centred on environmental questions and not on economic, social or cultural issues.

Yet the problems it raises are vast: sustainable development means figuring out how to limit environmental  risks and ensuring the renewal of natural resources - all this during a population explosion characterised by bulimic consumption for some and extreme penury for others, and when global coordination and coherent goals are nonexistent.

By delving into the foundations of these issues, the authors offer a synthesis of existing knowledge so as to enable effective actions.

 What is development? And what could truly sustainable development mean? How can we control current developments in order to stop the on-going deterioration of the planet and improve future conditions?

 This analysis takes into account every aspect of contemporary development problems - and not just their ecological factors. Two specialists with complementary domains of expertise propose solutions for the future.



Michel Griffon is the president of the Institute for Economic and Social Development (Paris-I-Sorbonne) and of the French Funds for World Environment. He heads the Ecosystems and Sustainable Development programme for France's National Research Agency and is the author of Nourrir la planète.

Florent Griffon is an analyst with Dexia Asset Management, in Brussels.

Transformation is vital for private enterprises as well as for political institutions — and even more so during times of crisis when everything is in a state of flux. But how can one be certain of making the best decision when the long-term prospects of an enterprise or institution come into play?Deep-seated mutations are radically changing the way business enterprises function. Management has responded by trying to bring strategies and organisations into line with the new global ...

Transformation is vital for private enterprises as well as for political institutions — and even more so during times of crisis when everything is in a state of flux. But how can one be certain of making the best decision when the long-term prospects of an enterprise or institution come into play?

Deep-seated mutations are radically changing the way business enterprises function. Management has responded by trying to bring strategies and organisations into line with the new global realities. But in a world undergoing reconfiguration, reality is forever shifting. It is therefore crucial for those who must define and maintain a steady course to distinguish between what is only a passing trend and what will last — and what can act as a lever to invent the future.

Despite short-term pressures, taking the time to reflect on these distinctions has become a strategic necessity: it is what will enable the development of transformations that will lead to real long-term success.

What can be done? The leader of France’s main management consulting group reveals here what he has learned from his experience in a variety of sectors.

Addressing managers, as well as anyone wishing to understand the risks and mechanisms of business transformation, Xavier Hochet provides us with a grid to understand the present situation, a set of guidelines, and a methodology allowing a better understanding of decision-making situations and processes, the sole guarantees of lasting success. What he does not do is provide pat answers or offer a compilation of current trends and abstract theories.

There is no need to be a soothsayer to make long-term decisions!





Based on top consultants’ expertise, this book will enrich the reflection of managers and decision-makers, in every sector, private and public.

The author provides a close examination of many specific cases, in all types of structures, and reports on the experiences of a cross-section of managers, their decisions and their vision of the future. Knowing how to transform your enterprise or institution does not mean applying models or following trends. It is a process of vision and decision, as well as of application, of opening the debate, of the capacity to mobilise. This book shows how to adopt it.



Xavier Hochet is the executive director of Capgemini Consulting France, and the author of Transformer l’entreprise. De la décision à l’action.

The Capgemini Group is one of the world’s foremost providers of management consulting and information technology services. Originally founded in France, the Group is now well established in more than thirty countries.

In France alone, more than 100,000 people (children and adults) suffer from autism. The first symptoms are usually detected during the first three years of childhood. Although there is no known cure for autism, there are forms of treatment that can significantly improve the quality of life of the autistic child. But for these to work, one must first learn to understand the child.How do autistic children experience life? What sort of exchanges do they attempt to establish with others? What is the ...

In France alone, more than 100,000 people (children and adults) suffer from autism. The first symptoms are usually detected during the first three years of childhood. Although there is no known cure for autism, there are forms of treatment that can significantly improve the quality of life of the autistic child. But for these to work, one must first learn to understand the child.

How do autistic children experience life? What sort of exchanges do they attempt to establish with others? What is the meaning for them of the desire for knowledge? How do they perceive the attempts that are made to teach them?



• The specific examples described here show how to overcome these children’s rigid defence systems and to help them learn to enjoy thinking and imagining.



• Regarded as a reference work on autism, this book addresses both parents and professionals confronted with the challenges presented by the autistic child’s psychoses and by the constant need to invent new, original responses.



Jacques Hochmann is a psychoanalyst, Professor Emeritus of child psychology at Claude Bernard University (Lyon) and an honorary physician for Lyon city hospitals. He is the author of Histoire de l’autisme (2009), Esprit, où es-tu? Psychanalyse et neurosciences (with Marc Jeannerod, 1996) and La Consolation. Essai sur le soin psychique (1994).

From Teheran, an Iranian scientist who calls himself “Dr Ali” sends an encrypted message to the CIA. He claims he has information about scientific research that will result in the development of an Iranian bomb. It falls on the CIA’s Harry Pappas to decide if Dr Ali is to be trusted. Little by little, Dr Ali sends more information to the agency, then panics. He is being watched and followed. In the meantime, Pappas is under intense pressure from the White House to deliver information ...

From Teheran, an Iranian scientist who calls himself “Dr Ali” sends an encrypted message to the CIA. He claims he has information about scientific research that will result in the development of an Iranian bomb. It falls on the CIA’s Harry Pappas to decide if Dr Ali is to be trusted. Little by little, Dr Ali sends more information to the agency, then panics. He is being watched and followed. In the meantime, Pappas is under intense pressure from the White House to deliver information quickly that can serve as a pretext to attack Iran. But to make sure that Dr Ali’s information is to be trusted, and to protect his source, Pappas needs to proceed slowly and cautiously — the basics of good intelligence work. Are the mistakes that led to the Iraqi disaster about to be replayed? What can be done to save Dr Ali and to get hold of the information that may avert a useless war?

Pappas’ great British friend offers a solution: to get his agent out Pappas will turn to a secret British spy team known as “The Increment”, whose operatives belong to Britain’s special forces. Capable of blending into any group anywhere, they have been granted the modern version of 007’s “license to kill”.

Will the operation succeed? Who in Iran is after Dr Ali? And why are the British being so generous to their American friend?



• After tackling terrorism in his previous novel, David Ignatius continues to reinvent the contemporary spy thriller in the context of today’s challenges.

• A suspense-filled plot that focuses alternatively on ground operatives, with their intelligence-gathering activities, and on the political discussions and decisions that shape, but also thwart, their actions.

• Packed with action, suspense and cruelty, this brilliant spy thriller will delight readers of Robert Littell’s The Company: A Novel of the CIA as well as filmgoers who enjoyed Robert De Niro’s film Reasons of State.

• The French translation of Body of Lies was published by Editions Odile Jacob as Mensonges d’Etat (2007, paperback 2008).



David Ignatius is the author of the best-selling Body of Lies (a film adaptation, with the same title, was directed by Ridley Scott and starred Leonardo DiCaprio). Ignatius is a columnist for the Washington Post and has covered the Middle East and the CIA for many years as a reporter and correspondent.

On 13 June 2004 the genetic analysis of a sample of miraculous blood gives the Vatican proof of the existence of God. The information is immediately classified “Pontifical Secret”. Only one man is allowed to read it: his name is Jon Cooper.• A fascinating novel combining elements of the theological thriller in the vein of The Da Vinci Code and of science fiction in the style of Arthur C. Clarke or Dan Simmons, Credo brilliantly interweaves times and places, styles ...

On 13 June 2004 the genetic analysis of a sample of miraculous blood gives the Vatican proof of the existence of God. The information is immediately classified “Pontifical Secret”. Only one man is allowed to read it: his name is Jon Cooper.



• A fascinating novel combining elements of the theological thriller in the vein of The Da Vinci Code and of science fiction in the style of Arthur C. Clarke or Dan Simmons, Credo brilliantly interweaves times and places, styles and genres, while examining the very destiny of the world and the meaning of time.

Jean-François Prévost is a lawyer on the Paris bar and a law professor. His wide-ranging interests include theology, biology and quantum physics. He has published several novels.

Mueller KG is a leading pharmaceutical laboratory in a highly lucrative market — the treatment of erectile dysfunctions. As soon as their product, Siturex, hit the market, it became one of the major blockbusters of all time, with an annual turnover of over one billion euros.A rival laboratory, Cortalis, is now planning to launch a new product that will be in direct competition with Siturex. But the project goes awry, following the sudden death of several participants during the final clinical ...

Mueller KG is a leading pharmaceutical laboratory in a highly lucrative market — the treatment of erectile dysfunctions. As soon as their product, Siturex, hit the market, it became one of the major blockbusters of all time, with an annual turnover of over one billion euros.A rival laboratory, Cortalis, is now planning to launch a new product that will be in direct competition with Siturex. But the project goes awry, following the sudden death of several participants during the final clinical tests.Something strange is going on. Maybe the deaths did not result from side effects brought on by the medication. Perhaps someone had access to the samples given to the human guinea pigs. Who stood to gain from their deaths? Mueller KG, Cortalis’ competitor? It seems too easy…Marie, a medical student and the fiancée of one of the victims, is determined to find out the truth, with the help of a friend. While Marie infiltrates the factory in Munich, where the medication is produced, her friend infiltrates the religious sect that is suspected of being behind the deaths.

• Economic wars, industrial espionage, ruthless strategies, complex plots and manipulation: the pharmaceutical industry is a cutthroat business. Its inside workings are revealed to us in this well-documented scientific thriller. When a group of religious fundamentalists comes onto the scene, the fun really begins…

• A breathtaking chase that takes us from Paris to Munich to New York.

Pierre Frot is an international business management consultant, most notably for the pharmaceutical industry. He lives in Germany.

Claudine Jouanelle is a senior manager in a large international corporation. She lives in the United States.

Blockbuster is their first novel.

How to fulfil your sexuality? Is it possible to attain fulfilment in harmony with your partner? How to deal with a loss of desire? With the absence of pleasure? With pain during sexual relations? With erectile dysfunctions? Sexual fulfilment depends on a thorough knowledge of oneself, one’s body and libido and on a heightened understanding of one’s partner and of his or her expectations. François-Xavier Poudat offers here a clear explanation, with no taboos, of male and female ...

How to fulfil your sexuality? Is it possible to attain fulfilment in harmony with your partner? How to deal with a loss of desire? With the absence of pleasure? With pain during sexual relations? With erectile dysfunctions? Sexual fulfilment depends on a thorough knowledge of oneself, one’s body and libido and on a heightened understanding of one’s partner and of his or her expectations.

François-Xavier Poudat offers here a clear explanation, with no taboos, of male and female sexual behaviour. He reveals what is concealed by some blockages, many of which are based on preconceived ideas. In order to overcome sexual disorders (anorgasmy, premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, etc.), the author proposes various solutions and effective therapeutic programmes consisting of exercises to be practised alone or with a partner. This is a guidebook to pleasure, for anyone who wishes to enrich their sexuality and their relationship.



• The method popularised by Editions Odile Jacob’s “Self-help guides” applied to sexuality.

• Explanations to further our understanding and a thorough therapeutic programme to enable us to take action.

• Suggestions and advice to help couples fulfil their sexuality.



François-Xavier Poudat is a psychiatrist and sexologist specialising in behavioural and cognitive couples therapy. He teaches sexology at the University of Nantes.

The food we eat should respect three basic rules: it should be safe, healthy and also tasty. But, as Doctor Jean-Marie Bourre shows here, the current obsession with safety often makes us forego taste and even health.Have you been scared out of your wits by the constant flow of reports (often of dubious reliability) revealing the terrible danger that lurks in a given food? Do the contradictory recommendations of so-called expert nutritionists just make you feel lost? Are you confused ...

The food we eat should respect three basic rules: it should be safe, healthy and also tasty. But, as Doctor Jean-Marie Bourre shows here, the current obsession with safety often makes us forego taste and even health.



Have you been scared out of your wits by the constant flow of reports (often of dubious reliability) revealing the terrible danger that lurks in a given food? Do the contradictory recommendations of so-called expert nutritionists just make you feel lost? Are you confused by the different arguments raging on such subjects as GMOs, fast food or the agri-food business? What should you eat? Meat or fish? Wild or farmed? With or without salt? Fat or lean? Vegetable or animal?



• The only eating habits that can be regarded as healthy are those that are based on real needs. But how can we satisfy them when bogus rumours and marketing tricks conspire to conceal them, and when the excessive use of the precautionary principle has created new health hazards? Where does the problem really lie: in the food itself or in our eating habits?



• This book will help you identify the real dangers posed by your diet and to rediscover the pleasure of eating — a prerequisite for health!



With La Diététique du cerveau, Jean-Marie Bourre revolutionised our understanding of nutrition. A member of the French Academy of Medicine, he formerly headed a research unit at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM). A specialist in fats, he was one of the scientists who discovered the effects of Omega-3 fatty acids. He is the author of, most notably, Les Bonnes Graisses, Les Aliments de l’intelligence and La Vérité sur les Oméga-3.