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This conference will examine the enlargement of the European Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. The horizon of peace is no longer limited to the West, but has become part of an " enlarged Europe " which can be represented as a triangle : with Paris or London as the first corner, Moscow or St. Petersburg at the second, and finally Constantinople/Istanbul at the third. In this vast area encompassing the Balkans, historic Russia, the Black Sea and the Straits, the European Union's desire to establish or maintain peace has led it to take an active interest - willy-nilly - in the fate of the countries on its eastern and south-eastern margins. Certain conflict situations there are so persistent and habitual that they are often interpreted as inevitable. We will examine a number of historical factors which, from the 19th century to the present day, have continued to compromise the achievement of peace in these regions, without necessarily considering them as invariants. This will be an opportunity to cast the historian's eye over the considerable challenges they present today to European peace engineering.
