Le concept de puissance connaît aujourd’hui de profondes mutations, tant liées à la globalisation qu'à l'apparition d'acteurs transnationaux influents dont les actions parfois fort efficaces exercent aujourd'hui une contrainte significative sur les Etats. L'omniprésence des médias, comme la progressive émergence d'une opinion publique mondiale informée et éduquée, renforcent le rôle des idées sur l’échiquier planétaire. Sur une planète où sont redistribués atouts et vulnérabilités, où de nouvelles lignes de fracture opèrent et où de nouvelles dynamiques réticulaires agissent, en particulier dans le cyberespace, comment se redessine la dialectique de la puissance, dans ses rapports à l'espace géographique, aux Etats, aux structures macrorégionales comme aux acteurs transnationaux ? Afin de répondre à cette question, seront étudiés le concept de puissance et ses mutations ; puis les nouveaux lieux de déploiement de cette puissance ; les contraintes historiques pesant sur les modalités d'exercice de cette puissance – tenant en particulier aux vestiges de la guerre froide – ; pour enfin aborder les nouveaux visages de l'influence internationale, laissant entrevoir comme un "au-delà de la puissance" dont l'interprétation inciterait à élargir, voire à redessiner, la plupart des concepts classiques des relations internationales. Une attention particulière sera accordée aux rapports qu’entretiennent géographie et théorie des relations internationales ainsi qu’à l'éclairage apporté par les outils de la géographie comme de la sociologie. Enfin, des conclusions concernant le cas français seront tirées de l’analyse scientifique ici menée ainsi que des évolutions mondiales étudiées. / The concept of power is involved in strong mutations, not only because of globalisation but also because of the appearance of influential transnational actors, which are able to shape states behaviour. The media's pervasiveness, added to the progressive advent of an informed and educated global public opinion, strengthens the role of ideas in the conduct of world affairs. On a planet where assets and vulnerabilities are redistributed, and where new key political divides operate - and also where unprecedented network dynamics are acting, especially into cyberspace - how power dialectic is reshaping itself, in relation to geographical space, macroregional structures and transnational actors ? In order to answer those questions, we will first study power conceptualisations and their evolutions, then we will examine the new modalities and environments of power deployment, historical constraints over power exercise, and, lastly, we will try to discover the new faces offered by international influence, letting us catch a glimpse of a sort of “beyond the power”, which interpretation would tend to reshape most of the classical concepts of international theory. Particular attention will be paid to the ties between geography and international theory and to the enlightenment that geography and sociology tools could offer in order to study the new planetary configuration. At last, conclusions about the French case will be deduced from our scientific analysis and, more generally, concerning world transformations.

An investigation into the impact of generalised maximum entropy solutions on the study of queues with or without arrival balking and their applications to congestion management in communication networks Keywords: Queues, Balking, Maximum Entropy (ME) Principle, Global Balance (GB), Queue Length Distribution (QLD), Generalised Geometric (GGeo), Generalised Exponential (GE), Generalised Discrete Half Normal (GdHN), Congestion Management, Packet Dropping Policy (PDP) Generalisations to links between discrete least biased (i.e. maximum entropy (ME)) distribution inferences and Markov chains are conjectured towards the performance modelling, analysis and prediction of general, single server queues with or without arrival balking. New ME solutions, namely the generalised discrete Half Normal (GdHN) and truncated GdHN (GdHNT) distributions are characterised, subject to appropriate mean value constraints, for inferences of stationary discrete state probability distributions. Moreover, a closed form global balance (GB) solution is derived for the queue length distribution (QLD) of the M/GE/1/K queue subject to extended Morse balking, characterised by a Poisson prospective arrival process, i.i.d. generalised exponential (GE) service times and finite capacity, K. In this context, based on comprehensive numerical experimentation, the latter GB solution is conjectured to be a special case of the GdHNT ME distribution. ii Owing to the appropriate operational properties of the M/GE/1/K queue subject to extended Morse balking, this queueing system is applied as an ME performance model of Internet Protocol (IP)-based communication network nodes featuring static or dynamic packet dropping congestion management schemes. A performance evaluation study in terms of the model’s delay is carried out. Subsequently, the QLD’s of the GE/GE/1/K censored queue subject to extended Morse balking under three different composite batch balking and batch blocking policies are solved via the technique of GB. Following comprehensive numerical experimentation, the latter QLD’s are also conjectured to be special cases of the GdHNT. Limitations of this work and open problems which have arisen are included after the conclusions.

An investigation into the impact of generalised maximum entropy solutions on the study of queues with or without arrival balking and their applications to congestion management in communication networks Keywords: Queues, Balking, Maximum Entropy (ME) Principle, Global Balance (GB), Queue Length Distribution (QLD), Generalised Geometric (GGeo), Generalised Exponential (GE), Generalised Discrete Half Normal (GdHN), Congestion Management, Packet Dropping Policy (PDP) Generalisations to links between discrete least biased (i.e. maximum entropy (ME)) distribution inferences and Markov chains are conjectured towards the performance modelling, analysis and prediction of general, single server queues with or without arrival balking. New ME solutions, namely the generalised discrete Half Normal (GdHN) and truncated GdHN (GdHNT) distributions are characterised, subject to appropriate mean value constraints, for inferences of stationary discrete state probability distributions. Moreover, a closed form global balance (GB) solution is derived for the queue length distribution (QLD) of the M/GE/1/K queue subject to extended Morse balking, characterised by a Poisson prospective arrival process, i.i.d. generalised exponential (GE) service times and finite capacity, K. In this context, based on comprehensive numerical experimentation, the latter GB solution is conjectured to be a special case of the GdHNT ME distribution. ii Owing to the appropriate operational properties of the M/GE/1/K queue subject to extended Morse balking, this queueing system is applied as an ME performance model of Internet Protocol (IP)-based communication network nodes featuring static or dynamic packet dropping congestion management schemes. A performance evaluation study in terms of the model’s delay is carried out. Subsequently, the QLD’s of the GE/GE/1/K censored queue subject to extended Morse balking under three different composite batch balking and batch blocking policies are solved via the technique of GB. Following comprehensive numerical experimentation, the latter QLD’s are also conjectured to be special cases of the GdHNT. Limitations of this work and open problems which have arisen are included after the conclusions