Christopher Brooke
Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Cambridge
I'm Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Cambridge. My work is on themes in the history of modern European political thought. I’m the author of Philosophic Pride: Stoicism and Political Thought from Lipsius to Rousseau, which covers the period 1589 to 1761. More recently, I’ve edited the Penguin edition of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan.
EXPs by Christopher Brooke
One of the leading ideas in the international relations of the 18th century was the idea of the balance of power - that no State would be powerful enough to dominate the entire continent.
One question we can ask is what idea of Europe we have coming out of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
The Congress of Vienna in 1815 introduced institutionalised European cooperation, defeating republicanism and restoring the monarchies.
The League of Nations is envisaged as a genuinely international body that isn’t limited to Europe.