Confrontation Descartes maybe recalled, involving European noble (9)
I believe the answer is:
encounter
'confrontation' is the definition.
('encounter' can be a synonym of 'confrontation')
'descartes maybe recalled involving european noble' is the wordplay.
'descartes maybe' becomes 'rene' (Rene Descartes).
'recalled' is a reversal indicator.
'involving' indicates putting letters inside.
'european noble' becomes 'count'.
'rene' written backwards gives 'ener'.
'ener' placed around 'count' is 'ENCOUNTER'.
(Other definitions for encounter that I've seen before include "Struggle" , "Meet unexpectedly" , "Meet by chance with encore nut" , "fight" , "Meet by chance or enexpectedly" .)