This historical study tracks French intellectual debates about the meaning of Europe as a international political project, from the mid-1970s to the 1992 ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union. In attending to public discussion in periodicals and books, set in the context of institutional and disciplinary developments, it demonstrates how major new philosophical and ideological trends encouraged new forms of European internationalism among intellectuals and reinvested "Europe" with greater political import. Some notable thinkers whose work is considered are Raymond Aron, Michel Foucault, Pierre Rosanvallon, and Jean-Marc Ferry.