Choiseul - Éditions

Institut Choiseul is an independent, nonpartisan and not-for-profit organization devoted to research and analysis in international affairs. The Institute seeks to promote the understanding of strategic issues and frontlines in the post-September 11 world among French public and private decision-makers, with an emphasis on geo-economics. Through its publications, studies and various conferences and seminars, Institut Choiseul seeks to stimulate awareness and stir debate in the among company leaders and public servants and individuals about international issues.

The activities of Institut Choiseul also aim at developing a European vision of world affairs as a contribution to the emergence of common foreign policy of the EU.

Institut Choiseul believes in a set of values including individual responsibility, free enterprise, and the defense of the national and European interest, especially through the role beholding on the state and other public institutions. Institut Choiseul claims intellectual independence and rejects dogmatism, conditions without which its objectivity and analytical rigor would be weak.

Certain that nations remain the primary realm of human existence, Institut Choiseul considers that the main engine of international relations is the pursuit of national interest. Because national interests are by nature competitive, inter-state relations and the balance of force continues to be a key factor to understand world affairs.

Institut Choiseul advocates the principle of collective concertation, the primacy of international institutions and cooperation in the pursuit of peace and prosperity in the world.

The importance of economic activities in international relations suggests, however, to take a better account of the role of private companies in the defense of the national and European interest, primarily embodied, so far, by public institutions. Institut Choiseul thus recommends that a greater attention be paid to private players in international thinking and in policy-making. Emerging currents in civil society also need to be reckoned as active forces influencing international issues.

Institut Choiseul conceives of international relations as the result of several interdependent political, economic, sociological phenomena and circumstances. Its approach to international analysis is largely inspired by Raymond Aron's thought.

Finally, as it believes economic growth and social cohesion are the twin requirements of the international power and influence of nations and the EU, Institut Choiseul supports structural reforms without which France's and Europe's international ambition will not be achieved.