*** MARIA GAINAR: Aux origines de la diplomatie européenne. Les Neuf et la Coopération politique européenne de 1973 à 1980. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: pie@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Euroclio" series, No. 64. 2012, 642 pp. €57.50. ISBN 978-90-5201-845-4.
This book should be read with a guide who knows about some of the major achievements of this period. The historian Marie-Thérèse Bitsch takes on this role and in the preface immediately introduces us to a salutary semantic exercise that accompanied the momentous historic summit of December 1969 in The Hague, “at the beginning of European political cooperation” and therefore, “the first experience of common diplomacy between the member states of the European Community”. This is an important precision because she points out that, “this first initiative was highly ambitious… the European political community, with its quasi federal structure, following on from the European Defense Community” ended in failure on 30 August 1954. Obviously, it is crucial to also underline the initiative taken by General de Gaulle who sought to, “establish a political Europe founded on strictly inter-governmental cooperation”, which also failed in 1962. This was finally embodied in the bilateral “Traité de l'Elysée” ( January 1963). European Political Cooperation was outlined at The Hague and really begins to take off in January 1973, following the effective accession of three new states including the United Kingdom, a third major power, in addition to France and Germany. The author of this PhD thesis on which this book is based, Maria Gainar, leads the reader through all the major events up to 1980 and shows that this trajectory resembles a helter-skelter of successes and failures rather than a long tranquil river.
Divided into two parts, this book includes ten chapters in which the specific themes are set out, as well as the subjects that are still of extraordinary contemporary interest. We are shown that problems are very often caused by difficulties in international relations or so-called “foreign affairs” and not by a “political Europe”, which suggests a need for more integration anchored to a federal approach. Ultimately, the concept of “European diplomacy” is the optimum response to this ensemble of attempts that bring us, thirty years later, to the creation of the post of European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
During the 600 pages of Maria Gainar's book, the reader is obviously free to focus on a chapter of specific interest they may find interesting with regard to current events. Nonetheless, in each and every instance, we are struck by the precision of the author's analysis. Undoubtedly, by referring to the chronology, we can also have access to two annexes included by the author, namely the list of meetings held by the European Council and the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers, as well as that of the Declarations of the Nine, which constitutes an extremely precious itinerary. A priori, we may have thought that an historical page has been turned with regard to “L'Année de l'Europe”, a rather unusual, even incongruous title with regard to the “grand design” used to describe the euro-US relationship advocated by Henry Kissinger, which brings us up to spring 1973, 40 years ago! We are subsequently invited to explore the idea of the “Atlantic Charter” and the Declaration on “the European Identity” to arrive, after many different efforts, “to speak with a single voice”. The oil crisis also emerges as a factor in this book and the author concludes in this chapter in a rather cruel way that, “this marked the end of a tragedy-comedy, a denouement that revealed nothing”. Still within the confines of the region, the author demonstrates to us again the disparate reactions displayed by the Europeans on the eve of the Yon Kippur War, the laborious implementation of the “Euro-Arab dialogue”, the Camp David initiatives and the Venice Declaration in June 1979, as well as the “Cypriot puzzle” of summer 1974, which illustrates the limitations of Political Co-Operation given that the nine member states, initially based around the United Kingdom, “lose their grip in Cyprus”. The author also provides around sixty pages that focus on the origins and development of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, which ultimately led to the Final Act of Helsinki on 1 August 1975. This is preceded by the follow-up to the CSCE involving the nine member states, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1975, which led to certain questions being posed about their common approach, as well as the daily routine of their unity and riposte within NATO.
The final chapter is scarcely any more uplifting either and it focuses on the Iranian and Afghan crises. It rather depressingly concludes this book which won the Prix Duroselle 2012 confirms the perspective ( even though it was not outlined by Marie-Thérèse Bitsch in her preface) that, “all these issues are patiently and meticulously demonstrated by the author, including the transactions undertaken between the Nine in the definition of a European line, which is most often a solution emanating from a complex, indeed fragile compromise, sometimes based on the lowest common denominator. She also illustrates, however, that a real determination to reach conciliation develops between ministers and even more so among political leaders, their European counterparts and ambassadors in place in certain particularly important posts at the EPC. Surprisingly, in this process that is supposed to evolve outside the Community framework, the Commission in Brussels, its president, secretary general and other senior officials, play an increasingly efficient role in the positions they take and in the crucial function they perform. This cooperation subsequently prepared the Treaty of Maastricht, which would be expanded even further under the name of Common Foreign and Security Policy ". In the trajectory stretching from Maastricht to Lisbon, has the progress in the treaties actually been achieved in concrete terms? Ms Ashton and her services are preparing their balance sheet after their first two years of existence. We will have to wait for this document to judge what the new stage of “European diplomacy” should consist of and which should one day be consolidated by a defence and security policy backed up by sufficient resources.
Paul Collowald
*** BRUNO ARCIDIACONO, KATRIN MILZOW, AXEL MARION, PIERRE-ETIENNE BOURNEUF (Editors): Europe Twenty Years after the End of the Cold War - L'Europe vingt ans après la fin de la guerre froide. The New Europe, Next Europes ? - Nouvelle Europe, nouvelles Europes ? Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address attached). « Euroclio » series, No. 65. 2012, 330 pp. €49.80. ISBN 978-90-5201-819-5.
To keep the memory of the historian alive, who died young in 2007, the Pierre du Bois Foundation and the Institute in Higher International Studies and Development organised a second colloquy in 2010. This took place at the Higher International Studies and Development in Geneva where he used to teach. Historians, political scientists, young researchers and established academics took part in this event. This book includes contributions in both English and French, which provides an account of the comprehensive work on the way in which the European Union has evolved domestically and beyond its borders in developing its profile and responding to the major changes that have occurred over recent decades. In the first part of the book, the ramifications of successive enlargement are examined and the way the Union operates at an internal level. Examples are provided by Dirk Leuffen (University of Constance), who demonstrates that the arrival of countries from Central and Eastern Europe did not translate into any “new block”, which would have increased the “heterogeneity of the Council”. Wolfram Kaiser (University of Portsmouth) assesses the variety of different impacts on the political parties at national and European levels. Antonio Varsori (University of Padua) illustrates how Italy has robustly defended Economic and Monetary Union, the setting up of the Union and enhanced powers for the European Parliament not so much as a means to counter German reunification but rather, as a means to prevent the emergence of any Franco or Anglo-German directory, helping to anchor Germany in “Western Europe” and to stabilise the continent following the fall of the Communist bloc. Annabelle Littoz-Monnet tackles one of the most sensitive issues in our collective memories and the fact that enlargement towards the east has allowed for the incorporation of the remembrance of Soviet crimes into the EU discourse even though the "uniqueness of the Holocaust" frame still acts as the dominant narrative. The contribution by Katrin Milzow (Pierre du Bois Foundation) focuses on the way in which the concept of solidarity is supposed to provide, “a foundation and a specificity of the European project” and how it is interpreted in the EU 27 in the current context of crisis. This is a subject of great interest and she reveals how this has never actually been a univocal concept and that this has subsequently become an element of reciprocity and mutual interest.
In the second part of the book the different writers look at the effects of enlargement on the elaboration and conduct of external relations and the Union's defence policy. The very factual analysis by the historian Gérard Bossuat is worthy of particular attention and for whom Common Foreign and Security Policy allows the European Councils to come out with their inoperative declarations resulting in frustration for the small countries in relation to the big hitters, which creates a situation that could see Europe disappear off the face of the international scene in the long-term. The third part of the book looks at the policy on the external continental area and the resonance there has been to the major changes in Europe and the world. Finally, it is the vision of the Europeans themselves regarding the new phase of the adventure in which they have been participating for the past 60 years that is examined and the significant feeling of “disappointment and scepticism” that is palpable in Europe…
(MT)
*** SÁRKA WAISOVÁ: The Burden of Choice. Czech Foreign Policy between Principles and Interests. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, Postfach 350, CH-Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2012, 184 pp. €36.80. ISBN 978-3-631-63157-7.
This book is the culmination of a research project on “The Heritage of the Dissent in Czech Foreign Policy” and was written by a lecturer at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and the Metropolitan University of Prague. It provides a detailed analysis of the way in which the Czech Republic's foreign policy has evolved over recent years. In light of the developments observed at this level and on the international scene (the rising power of economic interdependence and trade, as well as values such as the protection of human rights, the democratisation process and civil society), Sárka Waisová seeks to verify that a similar trajectory was underway in the Czech Republic, which, similarly to many other countries, sought to develop a more ethical foreign policy based on principles and moral values. Waisová's scientific approach enables her to demonstrate that this did indeed transpire and that the geopolitical context evolving after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the feeling of increased security which resulted from it, as well as the impetus provided by dissidents such as, Václav Havel, were also important factors in this process.
(PBo)
*** YANN ECHINARD, ALBANE GESLIN, MICHEL GUELDRY, FABIEN TERPAN (Editors): L'Union européenne et les Etats-Unis - The European Union and the United States. Processus, politiques et projet / Processes, Policies, and projects. Editions Larcier (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - fax: 482693 - email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). "Europe(s)" series. 2013, 287 pp. €80. ISBN 978-2-8044-5188-2.
The relationship between the US and Europe is the history of love and hate. The authors of this book make this declaration in the preface and show how Washington officially supports the European Union but does not hesitate to negotiate with individual countries when its own interests deem it necessary. In the trade arena, there are many disputes and there are also many political divisions between the US and Europe. Differences exist on a level of values and what importance should be granted to religion and the way in which terrorism should be fought, as well as the death penalty. Nonetheless, at the same time, there are sufficient interests and common values to ensure that there is no significant rupture between the two sides and the US and the Union will ultimately continue to defend the same vision of the world based on free trade, democracy, the rule of law and pluralism. The second European and international meetings organised in Grenoble in 2010 sought to evaluate this relationship in the legal, political science and economic fields and this book seeks to provide an account of these meetings. Following the introduction by Michel Gueldry (Monterey Institute of International Studies), in which he provides a comparative vision of the two actors. The book is divided into three parts, with extensive contributions made by English speaking at French-speaking writers. Firstly, the affirmation according to which the US could provide a model for European construction is examined. Some of the other authors review the projects launched by Jean Monnet, such as the European and Atlantic Communities the Marshall Plan. The institutional systems, as well as their respective standards and are examined, particularly in light of the right of withdrawal as the element consolidating or preventing federalism. The final part of the book analyses future prospects and is equally intellectually stimulating.
(MT)
*** LUIS PERAL, VIJAY SAKHUJA (Editors): The EU-India partnership: time to go strategic? European Union Institute for Security Studies (100 av. de Suffren, F-75015 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 56891930 - fax: 56891931 - Email: info@iss.europa.eu - Internet: http://www.iss-europa.eu ). 2012, 191 pp. ISBN 978-92-9198-208-0.
This publication stems from the close collaboration developed between the European Union's Institute for Security Studies and its Indian equivalent, the Indian Council of World Affairs. These organisations organise an annual forum on effective multilateralism and this publication provides an account of the results of this partnership over recent years, as well as the ideas for further strengthening it. The different contributions are written by Indian and European writers and they illustrate how they believe that the strategic partnership launched in 2004 is not yet… sufficiently strategic. They formulate a number of detailed proposals to make it more strategic and they suggest that the field of Indo-European cooperation in areas such as the fight against terrorism and energy issues should be further explored. Particular attention is obviously paid to economic and trade relations, as well as ways in which the Union and India can exert their influence more effectively in the different forums for international governance.
(PBo)