‘Three ministers and the world they made: Acheson, Bevin, Schuman, and the making of the North Atlantic Treaty, March-April 1949

This new Handbook provides readers with the tools to understand the evolution of transatlantic security from the Cold War era to the early 21st century. After World War II, the US retained a strong presence as the dominant member of NATO throughout the Cold War. Former enemies, such as Germany, became close allies, while even countries that often criticized the United States made no serious attempt to break with Washington. This pattern of security co-operation continued after the end of the Cold War, with NATO expansion eastwards extending US influence. Despite the Iraq war prompting a seemingly irreparable transatlantic confrontation, the last years of the Bush administration witnessed a warming of US-European relations, expected to continue with the Obama administration

Solidarity and Italian Labor Movement Culture: CGIL Intellectuals and Revision of the CGIL’s International Relations (1980–1982)

The contribution aims to highlight the influence of the movement of Solidarność on the largest Italian trade union, the General Confederation of Labor during the peak of the Polish crisis (1980–1982). The author traces the ambivalences and contradictions of the debate that take place in the trade union, through an extensive study of the interviews, articles, internal reports and public speeches of intellectuals and main leaders. A clear picture emerges of both capacities and limits of Italian trade unionism (as of the whole Italian left) in understanding the real nature and depth of political and economic crisis in the socialist world

The 'novelty' of Sarkozy's foreign policy towards NATO and the US : the long view

Nicolas Sarkozy's reintegration of NATO's military command in 2009 has been presented as radical, given the traditional Gaullist stance of an arm's length relationship with NATO and the US. This article argues first, the difficulty for any French political leader to alter radically the course of French foreign and defence policy; second, that Sarkozy's policy is merely conforming to a longer-term trend of negotiating between European and Atlantic positions dating from the beginning of the twentieth centur

We were always realistic: the Heath government, the European Community and the Cold War in the Mediterranean, June 1970–February 1974

The Mediterranean region and contemporary Mediterranean history fascinated Saki Dockrill. She discussed, often, with characteristic perspicacity, all aspects of American and British diplomacy and strategy in the region. For her, British concepts and attitudes to the Mediterranean were more nuanced and inclusive than American ones. She perceived these as having been moulded by emotion and strategic expediency in equal measure. It was this that made her all the more interested in how two American Republican administrations, in particular, dealt with the region. Both Eisenhower and Nixon had a ‘whole Mediterranean’ approach. This essay investigates the extent to which, during Edward Heath’s premiership (18 June 1970–28 February 1974), Britain’s preparations to join the European Community (EC) led to a ‘Europeanisation’ of its policies and approach towards the Mediterranean. It will examine also, how Britain sought to protect its interests in the Mediterranean during the years of détente with what had become, just, limited capabilities. In doing so, it will bring together some of the themes that were a constant source of interest to Saki, namely post-war British efforts to adopt a European role without compromising the ‘special relationship’ with the US and its world role