Proud to Contribute to VeilleMag: Big Data, GEOINT and HUMINT

I am pleased to share my latest op-ed published in VeilleMag, entitled: "From the shadows to weak signals: what the conference reveals about the complementarity between Big Data and HUMINT."

This article revisits a particularly compelling conference held on April 22 at the École de Guerre Économique, focused on maritime flows, sovereignty, the Strait of Hormuz, African hubs, and the interplay between Big Data, GEOINT, and HUMINT.

This event struck me with the quality of the discussions, the complementarity of the speakers, and the strategic depth of the topics addressed. It reinforced an essential idea: in a world saturated with data, value lies not solely in collection, but in the ability to make sense of weak signals.

Data enables tracking. The field often enables understanding.

It is precisely this complementarity between digital tools, human observation, and situational intelligence that I wanted to analyze in this op-ed.

The interventions addressed major issues: maritime surveillance, strategic routes, straits, logistical dependencies, economic sovereignty, and the reading of power dynamics.

The topic of the Strait of Hormuz, African maritime dynamics, and flow monitoring tools demonstrated how contemporary analysis can no longer oppose data and fieldwork. Monitoring platforms, open data, and visualization capabilities offer considerable power. But they do not replace human interpretation, operational experience, and fine-grained contextual understanding.

It is in this space, between the technical signal and human intelligence, that an essential part of contemporary economic intelligence plays out.

I would like to warmly thank Jacqueline Sala, founder and editor-in-chief of Veille Magazine, for her welcome, her trust, and her unwavering commitment to watchkeeping, economic intelligence, and strategic culture.

Contributing to VeilleMag is a genuine source of pride. For many years, this media outlet has held an important place in the French strategic information ecosystem, giving voice to practitioners, researchers, experts, and field actors.

I am delighted to have been able to contribute a personal reflection on a subject that is particularly close to my heart: the place of human intelligence in an environment increasingly structured by data.