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Studies On Eisenhower Administration's Policy Towards European Economic Integration

Posted on:2014-12-21Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Z Y DingFull Text:PDF
GTID:1366330482951927Subject:History of international relations
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The Dissertation examines the relationship between the policies of Eisenhower administration towards European economic integration and the development of multilateral free trade system.The main conclusions of the dissertation is that European economic integration not only helped to increase the sense of interdependence among European allies,developed Franco-German rapprochement,but also contained a covered plan to build a unified European free trade market,which America would use as a tool to put the Bretton Woods System into motion actually,that is,to build an open world economic order good for American economic interest.Because previous negotiations on free trade could not make progress neither bilaterally nor multilaterally for the reason of trade protectionism or the contradiction between the GATT principles,such as reciprocity,most-favored-nation treatment,non-discrimination,the United States had to change their policy from multilateralism to regionalism.Eisenhower Administration created the situations to meet the conditions of reciprocity,non-discrimination and most-favored-nation treatment through supporting the creation of European Economic Community,so trade protectionism in USA and the EEC could be overcome.Then Eisenhower administration took advantage of trade disputes between the six(EEC)and the seven(EFTA)through dividing and conquering to promote EEC to adopt free trade policies and to press EFTA to give up the European preference arrangement and to agree to reorganize OEEC.Thus,the development of GATT negotiations on multilateral free trade was given impetus.Basing on the historical facts narrated in the dissertation,the author also raises some more general viewpoints:European integration is a European cause,but in 1950s and early 1960s,America dominated the approaches and directions of its development.European integration has been one fundamental element in American national security strategy,which was designed to displace the Roosevelt's abortive strategy of the concert of big powers and to take advantage of the thoughts of European unification to create a new peaceful open world order dominated by America.American managed to design international status for European allies through European integration.Under America's leadership,these allies are integrated into a common European frame,in which even if they will not follow or cooperate with America,they will not be able to challenge American hegemony seriously.There are some comparison can be made between European integration and containment as fundamental elements of American grand strategy to create a new world order.Cold war was the background of European integration.Both of them paid their attention to the designing of international status of other nations:the strategy of containment managed to destroy the Soviet system,while strategy of integration succeeding in establishing a European system,which brought up Europe as a fat but impotent giant.The strategy of integration may also supply alternatives for the construction of world order in the post-cold war world while containment may not.In sum,as a fundamental strategy,if European integration is not more significant than containment,it should be equal in importance.In fact,the two supplemented each other.The dissertation contains following four parts.The introduction of the dissertation contains general comments on existing researches in theories of European integration or the diplomatic history of American policies towards European integration,and shows new work or viewpoints that the author will be able to do or raise.Then,the first chapter discusses the historical and logic inevitabilities of American choice of European integration as one of her fundamental national security strategies.In this part,the author analyses the would-be cause-effect relationship between European economic integration and the advance of the multilateral free trade with an examination of the evolution of world economy and American strategic concept of international economic order.The following chapters,which make more careful examination on the roles that America and European states played respectively,focusing on the strategies,policies and interaction of or between these states,during the negotiations on European Economic Community and European free trade area,reorganization of OEEC(Organization of European Economic Cooperation),and mediation of the trade disputes between European Economic Community and European Free Trade Association,show that American elite regarded European integration as a comprehensive way to solve German Problem,to foster more bondable interdependence between European allies,to united European nations to confront Soviet and to promote the free trade among western industrial nations.The final part of the dissertation text is some conclusions drawn from the historical facts narrated in the previous chapters,which disclose the nature and function of American policies and strategies on European economic integration more deeply and show that liberalism is not enough to explain motivations of American foreign policiesOwing to the wide scope of European economic integration,the dissertation also covers some less important but relevant aspects of American policies on European economic integration in order to exhibit the significance of American strategy of European integration more deeply and comprehensively,i.e.,the relationship between association of dependent overseas territories with European Economic Community and US-Soviet economic war in the less developed world,Eisenhower administration's policies towards the developing Common Agricultural Policy or the operation of Coal and Steel Community.
Keywords/Search Tags:Eisenhower Administration, National Security Strategy, Construction of World Order, European Economic Integration, European Economic Community, European Free Trade Area, Organization for European Economic Cooperation
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