ABSTRACT
The reorganization of Europe in a way that sublimated national rivalries was regarded by Monnet as a incremental process. This approach has opened him up to attack from more ideologically-committed academics and politicians. Monnet remained both a pragmatist and a political opportunist who valued incrementalism over the purity of federalist principles and regarded an ad hoc approach as the more effective strategy for uniting Europe. While Jean Monnet is best remembered for his vision of European unity through the European Community, the earlier part of his life is also instructive in understanding his deep-rooted philosophical approach to peace and cooperation. One of the main inspirations behind postwar European integration was the desire to secure a lasting peace. National sovereignty and competition over resources were seen by an increasing number of influential individuals to be counter to this objective. Monnet equated nationalism with a "spirit of domination" based on the inequality between states that had been responsible for the European wars.
