NSS Enriching Knowledge Lecture Series:
International cooperation and
regional politics since 1945 (1):
Economic cooperation and integration
in Western Europe from 1945 to 1990. (New)
Professor Ricardo K. S. MAK
Hong Kong Baptist University
CDI020130569
17.11.2012
DEFENSIVE CONSTRUCTION IN THE
COLD WAR ERA: ECONOMIC
COOPERATION AND INTEGRATION
IN WESTERN EUROPE 1945-2000
A Game with Multiple Players with
Multiple Interests
• USA
• USSR
• European Powers (Britain, France, West Germany, etc)
• Economic, Security or Cultural Integration?
Please use this link to view a map
http://diepdoan.violet.vn/uploads/resources/blog/447/trat_tu_hai_cuc__yan_ta_500_01.png
The Structural Changes of the European
Community
Please use this link to view a chart
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Structure_History.png
The Spatial Integration of Europe
• EEC
• Britain plus EFTA
• Eastern Europe
Its Origin
• A mere product of the Cold War?
• A natural evolution?
• The European federalist movement during WWII?
Europe in 1945: The Great Division
Began
• A peace, a better peace
• Liberalization,
de-fascization and the
expansion of the Soviet Union
• The conditions of the European powers
Please use this link to view a map which shows the division of
Germany in 1945.
http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/berlin_map1945.jpg
Wartime Arrangements vs. Postwar
Reality
• The Atlantic Charter
• Hot Springs Agriculture Conference 1943
• Bretton Woods Conference 1944
• Postwar economic difficulties
• Should the USSR have a equal share?
The Emergence of USSR-USA
Confrontation
• 1946-1947
• The “German Question”
• The vulnerability of Western Europe
• Marshall Plan
• George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” and his
concept of Containment
Please use this link to view George Kennan’s photo.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Kennan.jpeg/220pxKennan.jpeg
The Low-Key but Important Marshall
Address, 5 June 1947
• It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is
able to do to assist in the return of normal economic
health in the world, without which there can be no political
stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not
against any country or doctrine but against hunger,
poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be
the revival of a working economy in the world so as to
permit the emergence of political and social conditions in
which free institutions can exist.
How Important was Europe to the USA
and the USSR
• Political realism: power and interests
• Geopolitics: spaciousness, resources, internal cohesion,
the ease of external communication, allies and enemies
• Strengths: military and economic
• Domestic political and economic needs
The Eurasian Land Mass
The Stand of the USA
• The reconstruction of Western Europe at minimal cost
• Rebuilding trust in the free market
• Military presence
• Rolling back communism
Please use this link to view a map of Cold War in Europe.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Esi_0VGlJI/UIjwQxd06I/AAAAAAAAAQM/Rrhioz5fR4A/s1600/europe-cold-war.jpg
Strategic Priority
• The Strategic Concept for the Defense of the North
•
•
•
•
Atlantic Area, October 1949
“…adequate military strength accompanied by economy
of effort, resources and manpower.”
While “hard core” of ground power would have to come
from the European nations, the USA would be responsible
for atomic counter-attack
Each European nation’s contribution to defense should be
in proportion to its geographical position, industrial
capacity, population and military capabilities
Two issues: (1) West Germany, (2) European Army
The Evolution of the NATO Strategy 1950-54
• The Expansion of NATO
• The failure of the European Defense Community
• The effect of destalinization
Economic Cooperation under US’s
Protection
• The diversity of European economies
• Schuman Plan 1950 – why coal and steel first?
• The Paris Treaty on 18 April 1951: economic expansion,
growth of employment and a rising standard of living.”
• More complex than a language issue: overproduction of
coal and the import of American coal in 1957
• The birth of the EEC
The Little Boys Have Something to say:
Beyond Coal and Steel
• Council of Europe, 1949
• European Defense Community 1950-54
• Common foreign policy: Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s
suggestion in 1953
• Western European Union
Please use this link to view the Konrad Adenauer’s photo.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bi
ld-F078072-0004,_Konrad_Adenauer.jpg
The Paris Treaty 23rd Oct., 1954
• West Germany now a key player
• The Pleven plan that came in the wrong time
• The Nine-Power Conference in London in
September 1954
• West Germany regained full sovereignty
Growing International Tension in the early
1960s…
• The “Sputnik” shock
• The East Berlin Crisis
• The U-2 Spy Crisis in May 1960
• The Pig Bay Incident April 1961
• The Building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• The new NATO defense strategy: disenchantment with
“massive retaliation” and the idea of flexible response
But it was Leadership that Matters
• The return of De Gaulle in 1958
• The retirement of Konrad Adenauer
• The failure of the Fouchet Plan
• The further division between member states
of the EEC
• Agriculture: the bone of contention
• The Luxembourg Compromise in 1965 that
slowed down the pace of integration
Britain and the Further Division of Europe
• The lone wolf Britain and the formation of the
EFTA
• Britain’s application for EEC membership in 1961
and 1964
• De Gaulle’s concern
Ostpolitik: Germany’s New Foreign Policy
• The Vietnam War and the USA’s quest for burden-sharing
• West Germany after the economic miracle: Ludwig Erhard
• Willy Brandt and the reconciliation
• The normalization of Sino-American Relations
• The beginning of the Ostpolitik (Going eastward policy)
The Time Line
• Treaty of Moscow, August 12, 1970
• Treaty of Warsaw, December 7, 1970
• The Quadruple Agreement, September 3, 1971
• Transit Agreement, December 17, 1971
• Basic Treaty, December 21, 1972
• Treaty of Prague from December 11, 1973
The Cold War Cooled Down
• The Moscow Summit May 1972
• The SALT 1 (Strategic Arms Limitation Talk) focusing on
the limitation of ICBM system and launchers
• Ostpolitik’s impacts on the USA, West Germany and the
USSR
• The Mutual & Balanced Force Reduction, 30th October
1973 in Vienna
• The Helsinki Accord in August 1975
The Shaky Future of the East Bloc
• The death of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1906-1982)
• Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko
• Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power in March 1985
A Short Interruption: Regean’s
Administration
• Combating “the Evil Empire,” giving up
negotiation, unilateralism
• The USA’s growing fighting capacity (MX
missiles, B-1 Bomber, Star war System)
• Afghanistan, El Salvador…
• Reagonomics
• The Installation of Pershing II in Britain, Holland,
Belgium, Italy and West Germany from 1983 to
1984
Gorbachev’s Reform
• Glasnost
• Perestroika
• Meeting Margaret Thatcher in December 1984
• Meeting Ronald Reagan in Geneva in
November 1985
• The US-Soviet announcement in Reykjavik in
Oct 1986
• Further Disarmament
The Dominos Began
• The story of Hungary
• Czechoslovakia
• East Germany
• Bulgaria
• Rumania
• Yugoslavia
SINCE THE 1990S
European Integration in Full Swing