Essays

Marxism in the Modern World

– Volume citation: Marxism in the Modern World, Hoover Institution: Palo Alto, 1965.
Aron has an essay on Marxism in this volume on Marxism in the Cold War era.

The Politics of Human Rights

– "The Politics of Human Rights," In Power and Policy in Quest of Law : Essays in Honor of Eugene Victor Rostow, p. 229-245.

Thinking Politically: A Liberal in the Age of Ideology

– Thinking Politically: A Liberal in the Age of Ideology,  New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997.
From the publisher: Thinking Politically brings together a series of remarkable interviews with Raymond Aron that form a political history of our time. Ranging over an entire lifetime, from his youthful experience with the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in… More

Democratic States and Totalitarian States (June 1939)

– "Democratic States and Totalitarian States (June 1939)," Salmagundi, n65 (Fall 1984): 27-39.
From the editorial note: On June 17, 1939 Raymond Aron read a paper before the French Philosophical Society on “Democratic States and Totalitarian States.” A summary had prepared the way for the paper which was followed by a discussion. Raymond Aron… More

Alternation in Government in the Industrialized Countries

– "Alternation in Government in the Industrialized Countries,"  Government and Opposition, v17 n1 (1982): 3-21.
Excerpt: ” I must confess that I did not choose the subject of this article out of theoretical or scientific interest. My dreams have not been peopled by the merits of replacing one team by another in government. It was Françoise Mitterand’s… More

For Progress, after the Fall of the Idols

– "For Progress, after the Fall of the Idols," Chicago Review, v32 n3 (Winter, 1981): 108-118.
Excerpt: Marx is not dead; in secondary schools, and colleges, even in the universities, he remains very much alive, and inexhaustible mine of quotations, of concepts and dogmas, and almost inevitable reference if not an undisputed authority. In England,… More

Ideology in Search of a Policy

– "Ideology in Search of a Policy," Foreign Affairs, v60 n3 (1981): 503-524.
Excerpt: Three signal events marked the year 1981 (as least, from the point of view of a Frenchman): the arrival of Ronald Reagan at the White House in January; the election of Francois Mitterand  2 the presidency of the French Republic followed by the… More

From American Imperialism to Soviet Hegemonism

– "From American Imperialism to Soviet Hegemonism," Atlantic Community Quarterly, 17(4) (Winter 1979/80) : 489-506.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, professors of international relations and men in the streets would have characterized the world in more or less the same terms. The 1st, and there learned way, baptized the interstate system as “bipolar”; the 2nd placed the… More

Arms Control and Peace Research

– "Arms Control and Peace Research," The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, 1979.
Excerpt: The juxtaposition of the two notions arms control and peace  research may at first sight surprise the reader. The first notion  implies theoretical and practical research into the ways first, of  reducing the risk of war, and nuclear war in… More

In Defense of Decadent Europe

– In Defense of Decadent Europe, South Bend, IN: Regnery/Gateway, 1977.
From the publisher: Raymond Aron’s In Defense of Decadent Europe was first conceived at a time of great uncertainty for the Western democracies. The postwar economic boom had been interrupted by “stagflation,” while communist and socialist… More

The Crisis of the European Idea

– "The Crisis of the European Idea," Government and Opposition, v11 n1 (197601): 5-19.
Excerpt: What does the European idea, the idea of European unity mean today? In they Christian era, a kind of units he was born of a common faith. It’s found expression in the church and in the universities. It’s excluded neither ethnological… More

Is Multinational Citizenship Possible?

– "Is Multinational Citizenship Possible?," Social Research, v41 n4 (Winter 1974): 638-656.
Excerpt: I have to admit that I found is a little difficult to understand the question which was put to me and which serves as the title for this essay. How could a citizen that possibly belonged to several political entities at once? Even the big companies… More

Reason, Passion, and Power in the Thought of Clausewitz

– "Reason, Passion, and Power in the Thought of Clausewitz," Social Research, v39 n4 (Winter: 1972): 599-621.  
Excerpt: Perhaps you will be surprised to find Clausewitz ranked among the great political philosophers. Does the author of the treatise on war, so widely quoted but so rarely read, merit this place of honor? Or is it proper to abandon him to those officers… More

The Great Debate: Theories of Nuclear Strategy

– The Great Debate: Theories of Nuclear Strategy, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965.
Originally published by Doubleday in 1969, this essay delineates the French position on thermonuclear weapons, as well as outlines the theories of deterrence and graduated retaliation that have guided U.S. nuclear policy formation.

Student Rebellion: Vision of the Future or Echo from the Past?

– "Student Rebellion: Vision of the Future or Echo from the Past?," Political Science Quarterly, v84 n2 (Jun., 1969): 289-310.
Excerpt: In order to limit my subject  and to concentrate on the most interesting it or the milliliter cases, I shall not discuss Latin American universities, for two reasons. These universities have known student unrest for a long time, and have granted… More

The Anarchical Order of Power

– "The Anarchical Order of Power," Daedalus, v95 n2 (Spring, 1966): 479-502.
Excerpt: Men continue to belong to political units pretending to independence. Hence, there is no “planetary Society” or “human society” comparable to Pueblo or French society, or to the society of the United States or the Soviet Union. The examples… More

Reflections on American Diplomacy

– "Reflections on American Diplomacy," Daedalus, v91 n4 (Fall, 1962): 717-732.
Excerpt: How does American diplomacy look to a European observer who is well disposed to the United States? I do not feel really qualified to answer this question, posed by my friends of the Daedalus, because I know too many of the men responsible for… More

The Education of the Citizen in Industrial Society

– "The Education of the Citizen in Industrial Society," Daedalus, v91 n2 (Spring, 1962): 249-263.
Excerpt: Modern societies present certain characteristics previously unknown, and observers agree and putting these original traits of modern civilization to the credit (or debit) of science. In the United States, the application of scientific knowledge has… More

The Situation of Democracy: Western Political Institutions in the Twentieth Century

– "The Situation of Democracy: Western Political Institutions in the Twentieth Century," Daedalus, v90 n2 (Spring, 1961): 350-370.
Excerpt: Fifteen years after the armistice of 1918 Hitler was Chancellor of the Reich, Mussolini and prime minister of a Fascist Italy, and the central and eastern European countries, with the exception of Czechoslovakia, had suspended the functioning of… More

Evidence and Inference in History

– "Evidence and Inference in History," Daedalus, v87 n4 (Fall, 1958): 11-39.
Excerpt: I confess that I feel apprehensive about the subject proposed to me. Even though there may be possible French equivalents to to an accumulation of data available to the scholar, in this case the historian, before he risks making inferences, evidence… More

France: Stability and Instability

– "France: Stability and Instability," Yale French Studies, v15 (1955): 17-23.
There is nothing new in the gloomy appraisals of France’s political instability that are emanating from both sides of the English channel and the Atlantic. Examples of the same sort of comments can be found in the letters of Alexis de Tocqueville to his… More

Europe and Air Power

– "Europe and Air Power," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v299 (May, 1955): 95-101.
Excerpt: In the current debates on airpower, 2 phenomena, logical he and factually distinct from each other, are being frequently mistaken for one another. The 1st consists of the rise of military aviation, which has modified the role of the 2 traditional… More

Limits to the Powers of the United Nations

– "Limits to the Powers of the United Nations," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v296 (Nov., 1954): 20-26.
Excerpt: Is the United Nations—and can it be—an essential instrument of security in the world today? Can a revision of the church or had decisively to the effectiveness of the international organization? It seems to me that the answer to these 2 questions… More

French Public Opinion and the Atlantic Treaty

– "French Public Opinion and the Atlantic Treaty," International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs) v28 n1 (Jan., 1952): 1-8.
Excerpt: The turning point in French foreign policy after the Second World War was not the signing of the Atlantic Treaty. The impossibility of maintaining what had hitherto been the official policy of the 4th Republic, to “form a bridge” and play the… More

France, Still the Third Republic

– "France, Still the Third Republic," Foreign Affairs, v30 n1 (Oct., 1951): 145-151.
Excerpt: The middle-of-the-road parties, as they would be called in Anglo-Saxon countries, came out on top in the recent French elections, but the Pleven Cabinet formed after long delay does not provide the strong government we all had hoped for, since they… More

France in the Cold War

– "France in the Cold War," The Political Quarterly, v22 n1 (January 1951): 57-66.
Excerpt: To make it quite clear with what the present article sets out to deal, it is 1st necessary that we should define the term cold war which indiscriminate use has rendered obscure. Fundamentally, a cold war arises from the generalized application… More

Reflections on the Foreign Policy of France

– "Reflections on the Foreign Policy of France," International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs ) v21 n4 (Oct., 1945): 437-447.
Excerpt: At the same time of the “phony” war, publicists on both sides of the Channel heatedly discussed the best means of winning the peace, before the conquest of the enemy had even begun. Today the enemy is prostrate and, as though we were fated to… More