Introduction:

Two hundred years ago diplomatic representatives (in official diplomatic language plenipotentiaries) of the four victorious great powers and France signed the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna after ten months of negotiations under the chairmanship of the Austrian Prince and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Clemens von Metternich (1773-1859). Their Final Act set the political geography of Europe and apportioned the populations without their consent to different sovereigns.

The Final Act of Vienna became one of the pillars of the European security regime also known as the Concert of Europe. This regime has attracted the attention of today’s scholars and politicians who want to investigate whether its conditions of existence and diplomatic practices are still valuable to manage international tensions and domestic threats with cross border aspects such as social unrest and political violence. In particular Metternich feared domestic threats against the existing monarchical order in Europe. To resist these threats he did not eschew intervention and even propagated an international anti-revolutionary information centre.