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If the specificity of liberal democracy, as a regime, is to base power on consent then political violence appears to contradict the typical self-understanding of the societies whose functioning it informs. A justification of the motives which may call for such violence thus becomes both a political and a philosophical problem when such a regime faces the necessity to resort to violent means of action. Reaching intellectual maturity during the 30's and the 40's, while democratic states were faltering in Europe, Raymond Aron had an acute understanding of this issue. An inquiry into Aron's publications from that period will help us identify what kind of moral and cultural foundations they need to have if they are not to collapse during wartime. These texts also shed an original light on his post-war political thought and may lead us to reconsider some dominant contemporary interpretations of his work as revolving around the Kantian–Machiavellian antinomy. When compared to either element of this antinomy, Aron's conception of agency, its emphasis on moral obligations, virtues and moral character, starts bearing more resemblance to the political science of Aristotle than to modern social or political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the history of the French press that was based in London during the Second World War, focusing on its contribution to political debates of and about French exile, its relationship to the British government and its role in shaping inter-Allied relations. The article begins by outlining the development of British policy towards the foreign press based in London before examining three publications: the left-leaning daily France, the Gaullist weekly La Marseillaise and the monthly cultural and political periodical La France libre. By drawing on the contents of these papers alongside a variety of French, British and American archival material, the article shows that while the French press in London had a limited readership, it exercised significant influence among political elites either side of the Atlantic during the war and helped shape the terms of French debates over the meaning of Gaullism well into the post-Second World War period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raymond Aron (1904–1983) was one of the most renowned French intellectuals of the twentieth century. Eighty years after the Second World War, the scholarship is incomplete on his management of La France libre in wartime Britain (1940–1944). While his contributions to sociology in the 1930s and post-war have been established, this study examines his contributions to sociology during the war in the first volume of his articles 'From the Armistice to the National Insurrection'. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach in intellectual history and sociology, this study closely reads Aron’s articles, placing them in the context of his Interwar research on German sociology and the context of Free France in wartime London. It identifies the sociological methods Aron employed to typologize the backgrounds and motives of prominent French collaborators of Nazi Germany and deduces where his writings situated him politically. Aron’s sociology of collaborators yielded a classification of two categories—integral and opportunistic collaborators. His methods evoked Simmel’s systematic sociology and Weber’s historical causality. His articles had nuanced political implications: he was firmly against collaboration, but he hoped opportunistic collaborators would still rally the resistance in the early stages of the war. Aron’s classification stands the test of time, but more importantly, his sociological method was unique to him. Furthermore, his theoretical interpretations—formulated with limited knowledge, resources, and next to no hindsight—prefigured well-known theories by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simon Epstein. His political position demarcated him from other “Gaullists” without excluding him from broader Gaullism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Cuestiones de Sociologia: Revista de Estudios Sociales is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Conservative Thought / Muhafazakar Düşünce is the property of Muhafazakar Dusunce Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Relações Internacionais is the property of Relacoes Internacionais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For the last two centuries "Vom Kriege" has been used to justify two different kinds of totalitarianisms: Marxism-Leninism and Nazism. However, during the 1950s liberal thinking also made use of that work. In line with liberal thinking, Raymond Aron's "Penser la Guerre, Clausewitz" presents Clausewitz's work as moderate and liberal and underplays its totalitarian connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]