Britain Joined The U.s. Role In The Ec Process

After World WarⅡ,the European Integration launched by west European countries became a prominent affair in the changes of international relations in western Europe, and at the same time, it was a remarkable phenomenon in the development of the world economy and politics. Inside Europe, an ever closer union has been restructuring the relations among European countries, while in the world an ever unifying economic union and political entity has been playing more and more important role in the international economic relations and global politics.The United Kingdom was a traditional European power, and it has been an influential factor both in the international system of Europe and in the European integration. But the unique attitude and behavior of the UK have made itself particularly remarkable in the process of the European Integration. At the beginning of the European integration, the UK could have played an important role commensurate with its status, but it preferred to stay aloof from the process,and gradually fell into passivity. Later, the UK had to apply for permission to join the European Economic Community because of internal and external factors. However, the process of the UK's joining in the European integration was full of twists and turns.The United States of America became a superpower after World WarⅡ, and it possessed unprecedented power and influence in the world. From the viewpoint of the American global strategy, Europe was the focus of its foreign policy. During the cold war, how to treat"the European Integration"was an inevitable problem. On this point, America disagreed with Britain; America conflicted with Europe. In the eyes of Americans, the actualities of Europe in the 1960s were not satisfactory. An incongruous disagreement existed between the loose European Free Trade Association(EFTA) led by Britain and the European Economic Community(EEC)on the basis of supranational integration in the direction of European co-operation. Americans were opposed to Britain's breaking away from the mainstream of the European integration, and to France's centrifugal tendency as well. All these were reflected in the process of Britain's attempt to join European Economic Community in the 1960s. This paper attempts to study the important aspect of US-European relations, and tries to make clear the real role played by Americans during this process.The paper consists of a preface and four chapters. The preface gives a brief introduction to the research achievements of scholars home and abroad and also states the author's basic views. The first chapter focuses on the European cooperation soon after World War II, describes the different approaches to European unity, analyzes the development of the UK's European policy and the antagonism between Europe 7 and Europe 6,and points out that Americans'dissatisfaction with this situation forced the British government to reconsider its European policy. The second chapter discusses UK's revision of its European policy and the process of joining EEC, and analyzes various factors which impelled the British to revise its European policy. The third chapter concentrates on the US strategy toward Europe, inquires into the diplomatic efforts that the US government made to help the UK join EEC, and maintains that the US diplomatic efforts prompted the UK to revise its European policy and keep on its position for a membership of EEC. The fourth chapter discusses the theory of internal causes and that of external factors put forward by Chinese and foreign scholars, asserts the theory of joint force by summarizing various factors, and at the same time maintains that Americans'efforts were a necessary factor for the UK to revise its European policy and join EEC.