Décript in dialogue: "Whose Peace? Warmongers, peace fictions, and the narratives of imperial order"

The FMSH and the DÉCRIPT program continue their series of meetings dedicated to the leading voices of international research. This second session will host historian Lauren Benton to discuss her book They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence, along with journalist Eleanor Beardsley.

In this work, Lauren Benton shows how European empires built their power by turning violence into an ordinary instrument of government, legitimized in the name of peace and order.

Through five centuries of history, from Asia to the Americas, she traces how this violence blurred the boundaries between war and peace, eventually embedding a state of almost permanent conflict at the heart of the contemporary international order.

The meeting will be held in English.

About the book

In They Called It Peace. Worlds of Imperial Violence (Princeton University Press, 2024), Lauren Benton traces five centuries of imperial violence, from Asia to the Americas. She shows how European empires shaped a regime of perpetual war, hidden behind the language of peace and order: raids, massacres, and extermination campaigns were labeled as necessary "small wars," presented as humanitarian interventions rather than acts of war.

This masterful book reveals how this legacy continues to structure the contemporary international order — and how imperial violence remains at the heart of the world we inhabit.

About the speakers

Lauren Benton studied economics at Harvard University before earning a PhD in anthropology and history from Johns Hopkins University in 1987. Her early work, focused on informal economy workers, resulted in a book on sweatshops in Spain and a landmark study on the destruction of Afro-Uruguayan neighborhoods in Montevideo. Since 2001, she has established herself as one of the leading scholars in global legal history. Author or co-editor of seven books on European empires, she has notably worked on issues of sovereignty, conquest, slavery and abolition, war and peace, and the history of international order. A recipient of the 2019 Toynbee Prize, which recognizes major contributions to world history, Lauren Benton has taught at MIT, New York University (NYU), and Vanderbilt University. She has also served as president of the American Society for Legal History. She is currently the Barton M. Biggs Professor of History and Professor of Law at Yale University.

Eleanor Beardsley, born in South Carolina, holds a bachelor's degree in European history and French, an honorary doctorate in humanities from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, as well as a master's in international business from the University of South Carolina. She is a Paris correspondent for National Public Radio, where she covers various aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture, and gastronomy. Eleanor Beardsley has contributed to National Public Radio's coverage of events that have marked the European continent over the last decade. From terrorist attacks to the migration crisis, she has notably followed the arrival of Syrian refugees in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and France.

About the DÉCRIPT program

From the "Global Civilization Initiative" put forward by China to the "civilization of civilizations" promoted by Russia, through the U.S. State Department's call for "seeking civilizational allies in Europe," the reference to the notion of civilization structures many political discourses and permeates collective imaginaries. What representations of the world underlie the civilizational narratives conveyed by a growing number of international actors? Who articulates them, and what mechanisms govern their production, dissemination, or contestation? How do they intertwine with conflictual dynamics and reshape both the analysis of global issues, their governance models, and, more broadly, the notion of universal norms?

The DÉCRIPT program (Device for the Study of Crises and Civilizational Narratives through Pluridisciplinarity and Fieldwork), led by Inalco with a consortium of fifteen partners and supported by France 2030, aims to shed light on these issues by combining area studies and global studies. Mobilizing the humanities, social sciences, and data analysis, DÉCRIPT produces original and empirically grounded research. It aims to inform public action and broadly disseminate its results to contribute to a critical understanding of the interactions between civilizational narratives and contemporary crises.