Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

1
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• An European Army in the 1950s?
• October 1950 France proposes the establishment
  of an integrated European force between France,
  West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and
  Luxembourg
• But was it purely an initiative to counter US
  demands for West Germany rearmament i.e.
  Europeanisation vs Transatlantic western
  integration

2
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• The Puzzle How to tackle the perceived Communist
  Threat to the Atlantic/Western Community without
  reviving German militarism?
• Jean Monnet, the father of the European Coal
  and Steel Community (ECSC) worried that US
  support for West German Rearmament would make
  Germany less interested in fully participating
  in an integrated ECSC
• Therefore
• He decided to model the rearmament project in the
  same lines as the ECSC i.e. to make it part of a
  fully integrated European project with strong
  backing from the US

3
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• Monnet believed that by Europeanising the
  question of German rearmament, one could start
  thinking about creating a functioning European
  Federation
• 24 October 1950 Monnet drafts a declaration in
  the name of the French PM Pleven, proposing the
  establishment of an European Army to be attached
  to the new political institutions of Europe
• This included a complete integration of human and
  material components under a single political and
  military European authority the creation of the
  post of European Minister of Defence, and a
  European Defence Council finally, the plan also
  including drafting a European defence budget

4
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• Monnet acknowledged the enormous potential of
  defence integration for the fully development of
  a European political community thus, he quickly
  became an enthusiast of creating a European Army
• By this time, the US had made their political and
  financial support to Europe contingent on the
  successful establishment of a European Defence
  Community Italian PM De Gasperi further
  proposed, in 1952, that the future Common
  Assembly of the EDC would have the powers to
  develop a political structure enabling the
  creation of a European Federation

5
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• May 1952 EDC Treaty signed (but yet to be
  ratified by national parliaments) No rush in
  making the EDC fully operational before
  elaborating upon Europes political architecture
  within ECSC
• New US Republican Administration
  (Eisenhower/Dulles) Dulles to Monnet, November
  1952 I believe the prompt creation of a United
  States of Europe is essential and I know you
  share this conviction Transatlantic federalist
  appeal
• Yet, the political tide starts swinging in
  France, new Socialist government in power, first
  with PM Mayer, later with Mendès-France less
  enthusiasm for the EDC project, priority given to
  national interests over broad international
  cooperation

6
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• Anti-EDC Gaullist Party (RPF) part of coalition
  government Calls for new negotiations over the
  EDC, in order to protect the national character
  of the French Army and its unity and the unity of
  the French Union
• Plans for a European Political authority
  perceived as a threat to having France as an
  independent Western Power
• For the French military and policymakers, the EDC
  was no longer about German rearmament but about
  the future of France as an independent global
  actor
• Monnet, on the other hand, firmly believed that
  any European Political arrangement that fell
  short of transferring national sovereignty to
  common (European) institutions would open the way
  to the renaissance of militaristic nationalism in
  Germany

7
Jean Monnet and the European Defence Community

• The linkage between the creation of a European
  Political Community with that of a European
  Defence Community was now threatening European
  and Transatlantic unity as a whole i.e. those
  opposed to supranational institutions (as in the
  EPC) and those who firmly opposed West German
  rearmament (as in the EDC) quickly found common
  ground
• 24 August 1954 The French national assembly
  votes against the ratification of the EDC treaty
  (319 against, 264 in favour)
• Nevertheless, Monet insisted that a supranational
  European path was the sole and last hope for
  peace and prosperity in Europe

8
NATO Transatlantic Crisis of 1966

• 7 March 1966 US President Lyndon Johnson
  receives a letter from his French counterpart,
  General Charles de Gaulle
• France has decided to recover the entire
  exercise of her territorial sovereigntyterminates
  her participation in NATO integrated commands
  and no longer places her forces at the disposal
  of NATO
• US- European relations strained i.e. No European
  solidarity with the US in Vietnam, US doubting
  the loyalty of European allies
• De Gaulle defended that the US should not have
  the monopoly of military control and of defining
  the global geopolitics of Western relations

9
NATO Transatlantic Crisis of 1966

• De Gaulle had in fact questioned the
  organisations own legitimacy in an era of
  détente as a result of French withdrawal from
  NATOs integrated military command structure (but
  not from NATO itself), both the UK and West
  Germany expanded their influence within the
  organisation
• De Gaulle on NATO hegemony disguised as
  Atlantic solidarity America was Europes
  daughter, and not its Master
• Defence vs Détente British agreed with the
  content of French criticism to NATO, but not with
  its methods they saw it as an opportunity to
  reform NATO and make the organisation streamlined
  and more economical, with an agreement on nuclear
  sharing and a new focus on détente

10
The Beginning of the End of the Cold War

• December 1979 Why were Cruise and Pershing II
  missiles deployed in Europe?
• Mary Kaldor Political reasons to reassert US
  commitment to the defence of Western Europe
  Deployment was also supposed to display NATOs
  ability to take and execute collective decisions
• Yet, on the other hand, deployment per se quickly
  became self-defeating as it greatly undermined
  both West and East European public opinion
  consensus about international security policy
• Therefore, the beginning of the end of the Cold
  War began/was accelerated by an unexpected?
  remilitarisation of the mind in both West and East

11
The Beginning of the End of the Cold War

• Late 1970s and early 1980s (Carter and Reagan
  US administrations) firm belief that US global
  role could be re-established through military
  superiority
• US-Soviet Union parity in strategic nuclear
  arsenals raised the question of US credibility in
  relation to its European partners and a perceived
  decline of Western influence (defeats in Vietnam
  and in the African continent)
• What was the dilemma for European Atlanticists
  1) to re-establish a working transatlantic
  relationship 2) to contain both new elements of
  European Nationalism and the rise of the Left 3)
  to constrain increasing US belligerency

12
The Beginning of the End of the Cold War

• European Public Opinion Perceptions of the
  deployment of the missiles Risk for European
  lives without risk for American lives i.e. the
  Soviet missiles deployed behind the Iron Curtain
  could only reach European cities
• Cruise and Pershing to be deployed in the UK,
  West Germany, Holland, Belgium and Italy
• Attempt to compromise West German and Dutch
  insisted that deployment must include
  negotiations with the Soviet Union in order to
  limit the deployment and/or use of theatre
  nuclear forces
• Massive demonstrations in Eastern Europe against
  the presence of Soviet SS-20 missiles peace
  activism became intense in East Germany and
  Czechoslovakia mostly

13
The Beginning of the End of the Cold War

• The Euromissile crisis was mostly, at the broader
  European level, an attempt to Europeanise the
  gains of détente
• It was a means to find ways on insulating
  détente from superpower nuclear confrontation,
  and about creating a healthy political space in
  Europe that could help slowing down the renewed
  arms race of the time
• According to European interpretation, deployment
  of missiles/nuclear weapons in their territory
  means that the host countries offer their
  territory as a target without getting a credible
  guarantee in return