International conference «De Gaulle, notre contemporain»

On March 2, 2016 IE RAS held international scientific and practical conference «De Gaulle, notre contemporain», organized by Friends of France Association together with Department of Country Studies and Department of Social and Political Studies of IE RAS with support of several partner organizations.

Although the event was not attributed to any memorable date, related to the life or activity of Charles De Gaulle, the personality, political practice and views of «the great son of France» are extremely acute in light of the problems and challenges that Europe and the world are facing in the beginning of the ХХI century. This thought united all the speeches, presented at the conference.

In his welcome address IE RAS Director Аl.А. Gromyko outlined the scale of General De Gaulle’s personality, whose legacy is immense not only in the history of France, but also in the world politics of the ХХ century in general, not to mention the French – Soviet relations and the disarmament policy. Head of IE RAS Center for French Studies Yury Rubinskiy in his report, that gave the name to the conference, stressed the unique ability of De Gaulle to overcome stereotypes and seemingly unbreakable notions on politics and society, to synthesize incompatible political processes – something that only historic figures can do.

Chief scientific associate of the Institute of General History RAS М. Arzakanyan, author of several books about the life and activity of Charles De Gaulle, shared her thoughts on modern interpretation of the famous Gaullist approach to the European integration, expressed by the slogan of «Europe of Fatherlands». Detailed analysis of De Gaulle’s political philosophy and its actuality in our days was presented by leading scientific associate of INION RAS, Director of Research Center of Historical Perspective Foundation Е.А. Narochnitzkaya.

Guests from France took active part in the conference as well. Independent political scientist, graduate of Saint-Cyr Military School and International Relations Faculty of Sorbonne Xavier Moreau presented the report «Actuality of Gaullism in foreign policy of France», Doctor of Economic sciences of Higher School of Social Sciences Helen Clement-Pitiot gave the presentation «The Sovereign Policy of De Gaulle and its actuality for Russia 2016».

The discussion that followed the reports proved to be just as interesting and substantial. It was shared by Head of Center of the Institute of Acute International Problems of the Diplomatic Academy of Russian Foreign Ministry Т.V. Zvereva, Professor of MGIMO University Е.О. Оbichkina, Assistant professor of History Faculty of Lomonosov MSU N.N. Naumova and many other participants of the conference.