Analysing European Defence with Elias’s Historical Sociology (1990–2020)

Delphine Deschaux-Beaume Deschaux-Dutard (1)

1 CESICE - Centre d'études sur la sécurité internationale et les coopérations européennes

This chapter shows the interest of Elias’s sociology to analyse European Defence Policy as a specific social figuration within the European Union since the 1990s. Our study of the sociogenesis of European Defence Policy particularly focuses on the way the French-German politico-military actors historically shaped European Defence Policy as a social figuration. This chapter is based on a substantial fieldwork. Its analytical claim is to show the relevance of historical sociology in the study of such sectors of European integration, and more precisely the potentialities of two concepts developed by Elias: the concepts of figuration and habitus. After briefly presenting the added-value of Elias’s sociological concepts to investigate European Defence Policy, the chapter explains why the concept of figuration proposed by Elias is an interesting way of analysing European Defence Policy. The chapter thereafter focuses on the concept of habitus to explain the recurring strategic divergences challenging European Defence Policy.

Domaines: Droit

Delphine Deschaux-Beaume Deschaux-Dutard. Analysing European Defence with Elias’s Historical Sociology (1990–2020). Florence Delmotte; Barbara Górnicka. Norbert Elias in Troubled Times : Figurational Approaches to the Problems of the Twenty-First Century, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.199-216, 2021, Palgrave studies on Norbert Elias, 978-3-030-74992-7. ⟨10.1007/978-3-030-74993-4_11⟩. ⟨hal-02639373⟩