The European Union, poorly understood by its citizens, suffers from a real image deficit. Is it possible to fix this ? Yes, by changing the discourse and broadening the explanation schemes, in space and time: we must include the countries of Eastern Europe and go back to the Age of Enlightenment. Based on European history, Stella Ghervas explains why the idea of peace could well be the legitimizing principle of the Union.
Stella Ghervas, historian of Europe, is a researcher at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme de l’Aquitaine (Bordeaux), an associate researcher with theIRICE (Identities, international relations and civilizations of Europe, CNRS / Universities of Paris I and Paris IV) and member of CIFE (International European Training Center). She is notably the author of Reinventing tradition. Alexandre Stourdza and the Europe of the Holy Alliance (Paris, Honoré Champion, 2008, Guizot prize of the French Academy 2009, Xenopol prize of the Romanian Academy 2010) where she analyzes the founding of the European system at the intersection of the history of ideas and political history. She also published the work Places of Europe: myths and limits (Paris, Editions de la M.S.H.2008, co-directed with F. Rosset).
His current research focuses on the cultural and political foundations of an enlarged Europe, both over time (from XVIIIe century to the present day) and in space (including the West, South-East Europe and Russia). According to her, European studies, when they question the European idea, essentially stick to recent history and too often restrict themselves only to the founding countries of the Union. They thus forget that there is a profound continuity between the contemporary international order and the ideal of peace through law specific to the Enlightenment, which from the XVIIIe century is present in Western and Eastern Europe. The post-war European Communities are the heirs of a political model intended to put an end to war through the establishment of common institutions.