ABSTRACT
This chapter compares and contrasts the Gaullist vision of a “Europe des patries” with that of transnational European integration which has been the dominant understanding guiding the construction of a “united Europe” since the end of the Second World War. We examine the ways in which de Gaulle has been both a partisan of European unity and a critic of the dominant spirit informing the process of European integration. We argue that de Gaulle shows the need for Europe again to become the subject of philosophical speculation, moral vision, and a political action and statesmanship informed by such speculation, vision, and action. Moreover, he saw the project of constructing Europe as an opportunity for greatness in our time. He understood that a Europe that would live in continuity with its traditions and institutions and would maintain its soul, would have to be built by and through a mystique, the dedication to a great and transcendent goal, and not through politique, or a petty and purposeless politics of interest.
