Denis Rolland: "Building Europe, democracy and civil society, from Russia to the Balkans"
By Noémie Schoen, 23 March 2011
During the presentation in Paris of the book Building Europe, democracy and civil society, from Russia to the Balkans, the author Denis Rolland, Professor of History of contemporary international relations in Strasbourg, looks at the network of schools of political studies from an historian point of view. He comes back on the origins of his work and on the challenges of this ambitious project.
What are the reasons that pushed you to write on this topic?
There are many reasons.
First of all because of the Master “European studies” which is directed by the university of Siena in partnership with the university of Strasbourg, and for which I am the French coordinator. I am used to work with high qualified students who travel in four countries in Europe at the minimum in the year and who must carry out a practical project.
The second motivation is an important research project that - I think - will take me some years. The topic is periphery identities of Europe and it will embrace the Caucasus region, the Balkans but also the US and Latin America – all places where a european model spread.
Finally, as professor at the Strasbourg university, I wanted to get closer to the European institutions of this city. To be honest, the Council of Europe is a not a well-known institution. When I arrived in Strasbourg, I asked myself the purpose of this institution, so I want people to know more about it. The Council suffers from a lack of communication not necessarily because of its own fault, but it badly communicates and is not very visible from the outside. This is true if you look at the number of publications on the Council of Europe: there is few literature being published.
So these are the reasons at the origins of this first book. The initiative has been to recognize the excellent initiative of the Schools of political studies of the Council of Europe, which does a great work. I did not have enough time to look after it on my own, that’s why I requested the help of students to work on this particular project last year. They loved it.
Did the work on this book has changed your perception of Europe?
The vision I have from the Council of Europe and its functioning has changed, especially since we are working with another promotion of students on one of the commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. My understanding and knowledge of this institution is deepening.
It is not the vision of a pure political analyst neither the one of a legal expert, but the one of an international historian and I think indeed, that I progressively approach the complex questions of the relation between the Council of Europe and the European Union. This is a main relation for the schools of political studies as these were born and developed thanks to the EU’s financing with the joint programme that ended at the end of 2010. I must say that this was for me an additional factor of motivation. When I realized that the rule of these programmes is to stop at the end of the joint programme, endangering and putting at stake the schools, I thought this work had to be made public and it is the task of an external person.
The result is therefore this book, entitled Building europe, democracy and civil society, from Russia to the Balkans.
What degree of influence the network benefits from? Do you think that the objective of democracy of the schools has a repercussion in the different countries concerned?
There is always an important degree of integration of the schools in the national reality; it is the vocation of these schools. A school that is not integrated politically in a country, can't exist. We can speak of real integration but integration is at the same time, very diverse, as the schools are very heterogenous. The countries choose different profile participants. It also depends of the school director, his or her origins and of his or her way of considering things. For example, Elena Nemirovskaya gives a particular impetus to the Moscow school of political studies.
The interaction between the schools is also different from one country to the other. From the moment the person who manages the school is considered as a political opponent, it is a bit complicated. If however the person is linked to a party currently in power, it is a bit easier. The work consists in gathering everybody, whatever their beliefs in order to have a real visibility. In Albania, for example, some officials have participated to the school’s inauguration, which shows its integration. There are different ways of integration, but national integration is necessary for the schools to function. From my understanding of the monitoring processes of the Council of Europe, some orders and remarks are being made for the schools to be really integrated and represented.
How can we bring more visibility to the network of schools of political studies ?
The network should first be built. It is on the way thanks to the association from which Catherine Lalumière is the president. The network should also work, communicate and we shouldn’t be too obsessed with the communication because the work of the schools is a real and essential job first of being a visible work. One of the most important things is to train political elites and those of the civil society. The association of the schools will give visibility to the project. The Council should also work on it and make it one of its main priorities. I also think that two books will give more visibility, but it is necessary to discuss the problems of these schools and avoid unspoken remarks.
What do you expect from the publication of the book on the schools of political studies ?
The first volume is composed of interviews with an introduction and many documents. I took a large spectrum of people that my students or myself have interviewed, here in Strasbourg or abroad from the Montenegro to Moscow. The idea was to confront objectively different view points from the inside and the outside of the Council of Europe: academics, partners, NGOs, investors. The introduction frames a bit the whole, there are a lot of graphs, charts and documentary annexes.
I hope this first book must serve for the communication of the Council of Europe and help those who barely know about this institution to build up a point of view.
There will be a second book entitled for a European democratic governance. This will be a book that offers an analysis of the schools and will raise a number of questions on the link with the European Union, on the relationship with other investors, the functioning, the training mode, the lack of homogeneity or the necessary heterogeneity of these schools. It will be published in the coming months. It represents my analysis, my perception as an historian on how the schools were set up, on the programme, the financing, on the problems of terminology of Human rights and democracy. The logo of the Council won’t necessarily figure on this second book as it will be my personal analysis and I am not a civil servant from the Council of Europe. This book will go deeper and will raise a number of questions to which I don’t allow myself to answer.
