Upheaval in the alliance: The Atlantic powers and the reorganization of Western Europe, 1955-1963

Unlike most studies of European integration, which narrate the general origins of the phenomenon after World War II or relate the policies of one country or government toward European unity, this dissertation places European integration in an Atlantic and Cold War context of competing national policies. It situates Europe at the center of the Cold War and examines the ways that European and American leaders attempted to organize Western Europe in order to make it a bulwark against Soviet influence and an American partner in world affairs. It examines the policies of all four of the major Atlantic powers of the era, the United States, Great Britain, France, and West Germany, toward the unity of Western Europe from a comparative perspective. The story of early European integration is primarily the result of the interaction of the leaders of these four countries, whether in the form of cooperation or competition. Atlantic leaders cooperated out of awareness of the need to adapt Western Europe not only to Soviet power, but also to political and economic changes such as the end of European empires and the economic recovery of the continent from World War II. However, each of the Western governments of the era, including those of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy in the U.S., Charles de Gaulle in France, Harold Macmillan in Britain, and Konrad Adenauer in West Germany, developed its own plans for reshaping Western Europe to best advance purely national interests as well. It was these competing national interests that provided the tension among the major Atlantic powers and not only derailed many otherwise sound proposals for European unity, but also determined which institutions actually came into being, such as the European Common Market, the antecedent of today's European Union. The comparative study of national positions on the organization of European and Atlantic relations not only illuminates the origins of the European community in a new way, it also provides insights into the long-term national attitudes and aspirations that continue to shape European and American policies today.