European Integration and the Atlantic Community in the 1980s

Description

This unique collection of essays lays the groundwork for the study of the intersection of European integration and transatlantic relations in the 1980s. With archives for this period only recently being opened, scholars are beginning to analyse and understand what some have called a peak moment in the European project and others have called the Second Cold War. How do these moments intersect and relate to one another? These essays, by prominent scholars from Europe and the United States, examine these and related questions while challenging the '1980s' itself as a useful demarcation for historical analysis.

Kiran Klaus Patel is Professor of European and Global History at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He is the author of Soldiers of Labor: Labor Service in Nazi Germany and New Deal America (Cambridge University Press, 2005), co-editor of The United States and Germany during the 20th Century: Competition and Convergence (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and co-editor of Europeanization in the Twentieth Century: Historical Approaches (2010). Kenneth Weisbrode is Assistant Professor of History at Bilkent University, Turkey. He is author of On Ambivalence (2012) and The Atlantic Century (2009), and co-editor of The Paradox of a Global USA (2007).

"This is a most important book not only for the new answers it offers but even more for the new questions it poses. By searching for connections and by bridging the gaps, between different fields of historical research, it challenges consolidated interpretive paradigms and the very way we unfortunately tend to compartmentalize our study and understanding of international history." -- Leopoldo Nuti, Professor of International Relations History, Roma Tre University "European Integration and the Atlantic Community in the 1980s is a welcome addition to the literature of a relatively neglected decade. In chapters dealing with security, economics, technology, and, above all, ideas, it reveals the complex interaction between European integration and the Atlantic community -- complementary yet competitive, sometimes conflictual but always essential. With both sides of the Atlantic facing daunting twenty-first century challenges, this volume helps us better prepare for the future by better understanding our recent past." -- Robert Hutchings, Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin "There are very few time -periods in world history where path-breaking changes take place almost at once: the 1980s is one of them. In 1989, the Berlin wall came down, ending the Cold War. The early 1980s witnessed one of the most intensive conflicts in transatlantic relations when the arms buildup fostered by U.S. President Ronald Reagan met stiff resistance by peace movements on either side of the Atlantic. Last not least, the European integration project took a major leap forward with the Single European Act in 1986, leading to the Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990s, which initiated the European monetary union. This volume takes a long-awaited look at this historic decade and the changes it brought about. The authors put the 1980s in perspective of the long duree and analyze in detail the international and domestic repercussions of events, including the various transatlantic networks' interactions with each other. As a result, a most interesting decade in the transatlantic relationship comes to life again. The editors have done a marvelous job of bringing together a superb collection of essays from a variety of perspectives. A must-read for anybody interested in European and Atlantic affairs!" -- Thomas Risse, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, Freie Universitat Berlin