ABSTRACT
Aron was a true disciple of Clausewitz, the philosopher about whom he wrote his last great book. For him what mattered was the object: not the logical coherence or intrinsic harmony of ideas in themselves, but what happened in the real world when people started applying them. For Aron, therefore, actualites were just as important as ideas, and his contributions to Le Figaro no less significant than his lectures at the Sorbonne. The Second World War swept Aron into political and journalistic activity. He spent the bulk of it with de Gaulle in London, editing La France Libre and perhaps learning that tolerance, if not admiration, for British moeurs which made him so easy and acceptable a visitor after the war throughout the English-speaking world. But Aron was not concerned with analysis alone. His ultimate concern was action, and his conclusions were addressed as much to statesmen as to his academic colleagues.
