European foreign policy during the Cold War: Heath, Brandt, Pompidou, and the dream of political unity

Abstract

This is the first comprehensive study of European foreign policy in this period. It is based on extensive and original interviews with Henry Kissinger among others and lots of new, previously unavailable primary sources. It addresses the very current issue of American-European relations.Europe's first attempts at a united foreign policy after 1969 were remarkably successful but by 1974 this brief moment of concord had vanished. Why were the EC countries able to speak with one voice in the early 1970s, what caused European Political Cooperation to plunge into crisis, and what consequences - still felt today - did this have for Europe's role in the world and its relations with the US? This ground-breaking book is the first to analyse this period using previously unavailable archival material and first-hand interviews.European Foreign Policy during the Cold War illuminates the challenge of establishing Europe as an effective political power with brilliant clarity. Filling an important gap in the history of Europe, it covers an issue that is highly topical and controversial today.