The “images of Versailles” and the transformations of international relations in Europe after 1989–1990: views of Western European and US experts

Abstract

This article focuses on the question of how the “images” of the Versailles peace treaty (1919) were used by Western experts to analyse the events of the end of the Cold War in 1989–1990 and further international transformations in Europe in the 1990s. Though the scholarly literature on the history of the Versailles order and its historiography is rapidly growing, the problem of the “Versailles images” remains under-researched. The author underlines four key points seen by experts and political scientists to be similar between 1919 and 1989: the growing power of nationalism and separatism, transformation of the geopolitical and strategic situation in Europe, the new phase of globalization based on liberal and market principles, and finally, the rise of fears linked to the eventuality of the new revisionist power and the new global threats emerging. Based on analysis of the articles and publications of different experts and leaders of public opinion, the author concludes that their estimates often diverged from the opinions of professional historians of the interwar period. Political scientists exploited sometimes selectively separate features of the Versailles order in Europe to back up their points of view on the international trends of the 1990s. At the same time the ambivalence of scholars’ estimates correspond to the ambiguities of the Versailles treaty itself, where the new elements, such as the League of Nations and ideas of collective security, were mixed with the traditional repressive measures which winners tried to impose on losers throughout international history.