Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction to the work -- The study of individuals in the context of international relations -- Ghosts, tooth fairies, and the state -- Aim and structure of the book -- Anglo-American academia and de Gaulle's second life -- Notes -- 2. Haunted by history, preoccupied with nations -- The problem with Gaullism -- Soldier, writer, thinker (1890-1939) -- Rebel, politician, statesman (1940-1970) -- Nations in a Bergsonian mould: the centrality of de Gaulle's thought -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 3. Ethno-symbolism and the 'content' of the international system -- Nationalism: three schools of thought -- From Bergsonism to ethno-symbolism -- The value of ethno-symbolism -- Nations, ideologies, and the 'content' of the international system -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 4. Existence preceding essence: The individuality of nationhood -- Existentialism: the philosophy of individualism -- The personification of the ethno-symbolic -- Existence precedes essence -- On becoming -- Resisting the herd -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 5. Nationalism is an existentialism -- France and others in the world -- Abandonment: no master, no God -- Anguish: the condemnation of the national individual -- Despair: 'conquer yourself rather than the world' -- Bad faith and the authenticity of nations -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 6. De Gaulle, political science, and the problem of pessimism -- De Gaulle and Political Science -- From ethno-symbolic existentialism to utopianism -- Silence of the pessimists -- Notes -- Index