Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union
This book-length study is entitled Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union (see video). Its purpose is to trace European values back to their historical origins, evidencing how the ideas on peacemaking expressed by political philosophers crystallized as early as the 18th century into a concept of European unification. There is arguably a strong continuity between the ideals of the Enlightenment, the foundation of the Concert of Nations in the 19th century and the current institutions of the EU. The European communities born after WWII are the heirs of a political paradigm whose purpose is to end wars forever, by establishing common political institutions.