Marco Duranti

Mr. Duranti s project focuses on 1948 as a critical year in the transition of European state sovereignty from individual nation states to some greater entity of Europe . In 1948 anti-American federalists in Europe made their last plea for Cold War neutrality while anti-Soviet federalists launched their proposals for regional military integration against the communist threat. In addition, while 1948 has long been recognized as the year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention, Mr. Duranti s research also underscores the role of the meeting of the Hague Congress of Federalist Movements in May of that year as critical to the creation of European Court of Human Rights, which has been a largely successful supranational mechanism for the protection of individual liberties. Each of these events has had a profound impact in the ideological construction of a greater Europe . This research has important implications in understanding the origins of the European Union, which finds itself at a crossroads today.