The federalist cultural offensive after the failure of the EDC: The Centre international de formation européenne (1954–1993)

Résumé 0

The history of the Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE), from its creation in France in 1954 under the impetus of the federalist philosopher Alexandre Marc (1904–2000) until the early 1990s, is the focus of this research. It appears that this history, on a French level but even more so on a European or even transatlantic level, is as much a cultural as a political matter. The explanation, as the text illustrates, lies, on the one hand, in the societal motivations of its promoter and his followers; and, on the other hand, in the politics of influence pursued during the Cold War—all the more actively following the failure of the European Defence Community—by France, European Community institutions, and the United States. The article presented here allows us to rediscover the European federalist current with a personalist and Proudhonian imprint, which emerged before the war and was consolidated on a long-term basis in France under the name of Integral Federalism. It also allows us to understand the structure of the CIFE, in its originality but also in the context of a European identity in the making. It serves as a touchstone for evaluating the pedagogical dynamics.