Early actors in the making of Europe: the input of a small group of Belgian intellectuals

Abstract

The subject of this article is a group of Belgian intellectuals who tried to influence public opinion and promote Europe through their journal Cahiers socialistes (1944–1953). This journal was a meeting place for European thinkers from Belgium and abroad; it contributed to creating Europe through transatlantic and other global exchanges, and illustrates how different political identities expressed themselves throughout different perceptions of Europe. In the minds of the key figures of this journal – among whom Raymond Rifflet stands out as the intellectual leader – and their militant allies, European integration, socialist federalism, social development, ethics and economic reforms all lay in line with each other. As ‘intellectuals’, engaged in the public debate and deploying an acknowledged intellectual position in doing so, they have shaped political and cultural dynamics in the European integration process in a way that also reflected their view on their country’s national identity.