Le Monde diplomatique (lə mɔ̃d diplɔmatik; meaning "The Diplomatic World", and shortened as Le Diplo in French) is a French monthly newspaper founded in 1954 offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. there are 31 editions (7 digital-only) in 22 other languages worldwide.
The publication is 51% owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary company of Le Monde which grants it complete editorial autonomy. Politically it is part of the left that is critical of neoliberalism and has favoured alter-globalization since 1973.
Le Monde diplomatique was founded in 1954 by Hubert Beuve-Méry, founder and director of Le Monde, the French newspaper of record. Subtitled the "organ of diplomatic circles and of large international organisations," 5,000 copies were distributed, comprising eight pages, dedicated to foreign policy and geopolitics. Its first editor in chief, François Honti, developed the newspaper as a scholarly reference journal. Honti attentively followed the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement, created out of the 1955 Bandung Conference, and the issues of the "Third World".
Claude Julien became the newspaper's second editor in January 1973. At that time, the circulation of Le Monde diplomatique had jumped from 5,000 to 50,000 copies, and would reach, with Micheline Paulet, 120,000 in under 20 years. Without renouncing its "Third-worldism" position, it extended the treatment of its subjects, concentrating on international economic and monetary problems, strategic relations, the Middle-East conflict, etc. One of the contributors was Samir Frangieh, a leftist Lebanese journalist.
Le Monde diplomatique took an independent stance, criticising both the neoliberal ideology of the left and conservative policies represented by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
After the November 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the 1990-1991 Gulf War, the newspaper began to criticise what it described as an "American crusade".