Peace is not a natural state of affairs. As Ghervas shows in her elegant and stimulating book, it needs to be ?engineered,? and before that it has to be imagined. The past she brilliantly conjures is another country, to be sure, but the lessons it bears for our own troubled times are compellingly elaborated through an examination of the five major conflicts that have shaped modern Europe. Peace, she rightly concludes, is for the strong, while only the weak resort to war. -- Brendan Simms, author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, from 1453 to the PresentOnce considered just a utopian idea, lasting peace has been a serious aspiration, as Ghervas documents in this elegant book. Her learned and artful account follows the major European international settlements from the early eighteenth century to the European Union, as well as the contemporary thinkers who articulated their premises. An original defense of the role of diplomacy. -- Charles S. Maier, author of Once Within Borders: Territories of Power, Wealth, and Belonging since 1500How has Europe achieved peace without becoming an empire? With amazing elegance of style and argument, Ghervas answers the question in an impressive work of intellectual, political, and diplomatic history. -- Ivan Krastev, author of After EuropeBy shedding new light on key historical episodes, political figures, and philosophical ideas, Ghervas tells the fascinating story of the engineering of peace in Europe. A lively, inspiring, and useful read for all those who are committed to a lasting peace in Europe?and beyond. -- Michel Barnier, EU Head of Task Force for Relations with the United KingdomAn ambitious, erudite, and engaging book on the search for an enduring peace in Europe. In this bracing narrative, Ghervas traces presiding ?spirits? which structure the politics of various epochs, a conceit which helps readers get inside the heads of policymakers and their critics in order to consider the possibilities and constraints in international politics from their point of view. -- Christopher Brooke, author of Philosophic Pride: Stoicism and Political Thought from Lipsius to Rousseau Biografía del autor Stella Ghervas is Professor of Russian History at Newcastle University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her book Réinventer la tradition: Alexandre Stourdza et l?Europe de la Sainte-Alliance won the Guizot Prize from the Académie Française.