Relying on internal sources, Wilfried Loth analyses the birth and subsequent development of the European Union, from the launch of the Council of Europe and the Schuman Declaration until the Euro crisis and the contested European presidential election of Jean-Claude Juncker. This book shines a light on the crises of the European integration, such as the failure of the European Defence Community, De Gaulle's empty chair policy, or the rejection of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands, but also highlights the indubitable successes that are the Franco-German reconciliation, the establishment of the European common market, and the establishment of an expanding common currency. What this study accomplishes, for the first time, is to illuminate the driving forces behind the European integration process and how it changed European politics and society. "An enlightening work. A required reading for all who doubt the unfinished history of Europe." - Rolf Steininger, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "This book will become an indispensable standard work." - Joerg Himmelreich, Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

Containing essays by leading Cold War scholars, such as Wilfried Loth, Geir Lundestad and Seppo Hentila, this volume offers a broad-ranging examination of the history of detente in the Cold War. The ten years from 1965 to 1975 marked a deep transformation of the bipolar international system of the Cold War. The Vietnam War and the Prague Spring showed the limits of the two superpowers, who were constrained to embark on a wide-ranging detente policy, which culminated with the SALT agreements of 1972. At the same time this very detente opened new venues for the European countries: French policy towards the USSR and the German Ostpolitik being the most evident cases in point. For the first time since the 1950s, Western Europe began to participate in the shaping of the Cold War. The same could not be said of Eastern Europe, but ferments began to establish themselves there which would ultimately lead to the astounding changes of 1989-90: the Prague Spring, the uprisings in Gdansk in 1970 and generally the rise of the dissident movement. That last process being directly linked to the far-reaching event which marked the end of that momentous decade: the Helsinki conference. The Making of Detente will appeal to students of the Cold War, international history and European contemporary history.

How did Germany come to be divided during the Cold War? The renowned German historian Wilfired Loth has examined the archives of the Eastern side and comes to fascinating conclusions. He demonstrates that Stalin wanted neither a separate state on the soil of the Soviet Occupation Zone nor a socialist state in Germany at all. Instead, Stalin sought a joint administration of Germany by the victorious powers, a Germany along the lines of the Weimar Republic. The socialist separate state of the GDR is primarily the product of Walter Ulbricht's revolutionary zeal, which was able to unfold in the context of the Western walling-off policy.

This book is a major new interpretation of the Cold War and how it shaped the course of history. It looks into why the Cold War did not become more heated, and how it was finally overcome. Loth examines the containment of the Cold War, détente, the development of cooperative security, and the changes in the Soviet bloc. He offers new information taken from Eastern and Western archives, and for the first time draws a precise picture of how the Cold War was overcome.

Containing essays by leading Cold War scholars, such as Wilfried Loth, Geir Lundestad and Seppo Hentila, this volume offers a broad-ranging examination of the history of detente in the Cold War.

The ten years from 1965 to 1975 marked a deep transformation of the bipolar international system of the Cold War. The Vietnam War and the Prague Spring showed the limits of the two superpowers, who were constrained to embark on a wide-ranging detente policy, which culminated with the SALT agreements of 1972. At the same time this very detente opened new venues for the European countries: French policy towards the USSR and the German Ostpolitik being the most evident cases in point. For the first time since the 1950s, Western Europe began to participate in the shaping of the Cold War. The same could not be said of Eastern Europe, but ferments began to establish themselves there which would ultimately lead to the astounding changes of 1989-90: the Prague Spring, the uprisings in Gdansk in 1970 and generally the rise of the dissident movement. That last process being directly linked to the far-reaching event which marked the end of that momentous decade: the Helsinki conference.

The Making of Detente will appeal to students of the Cold War, international history and European contemporary history."

Relying on internal sources, Wilfried Loth analyses the birth and subsequent development of the European Union, from the launch of the Council of Europe and the Schuman Declaration until the Euro crisis and the contested European presidential election of Jean-Claude Juncker. This book shines a light on the crises of the European integration, such as the failure of the European Defence Community, De Gaulle's empty chair policy, or the rejection of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands, but also highlights the indubitable successes that are the Franco-German reconciliation, the establishment of the European common market, and the establishment of an expanding common currency. What this study accomplishes, for the first time, is to illuminate the driving forces behind the European integration process and how it changed European politics and society."An enlightening work. Arequired reading for all who doubt the unfinished history of Europe." - Rolf Steininger, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung."This book will become an indispensable standard work." - Joerg Himmelreich, Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

Walter Hallstein was among the great European visionaries. This is the first book length study of one of the key shapers of the European Community in its early years. The range of contributors include those who worked with Hallstein and have personal recollections of him, and younger historians drawing upon documents only recently available. The book contains sections on his contribution as State Secretary to post-war German foreign policy, his seminal role as the first President of the Commission of the EEC and the legacy of his work and ideas and later years as President of the European Movement.

Internationale Geschichte ist eine Disziplin in der Erneuerung. Uber die Beziehungen zwischen Staaten und Gesellschaften hinaus treten zunehmend die innenpolitischen, gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Bedingungen von Aussenpolitik ins Blickfeld, ebenso die aussenpolitischen Entscheidungsprozesse, die Geschichte des internationalen Systems und seiner Wandlungen, transnationale Bewegungen und Beziehungen und die wechselseitige Durchdringung von Kulturen. International ausgewiesene Historiker bieten in diesem Themenband eine Bilanz der Methodendiskussion zur Geschichtsschreibung der internationalen Beziehungen und erschliessen neue Dimensionen der Internationalen Geschichte. Aus der Presse: "Dieser verdienstvolle Sammelband spiegelt wie kein anderes deutschsprachiges Werk die Vielfalt und Vitalitat der "Internationalen Geschichte." Die 18 Beitrage sind ein Beweis dafur, dass die Geschichte der internationalen Beziehungen als Kerndisziplin der Geschichtswissenschaft mindestens ebensoviel innovatorische Kraft entfaltete wie das Lieblingskind der sechziger und siebziger Jahre, die Sozialgeschichte, und das Lieblingskind des gegenwartigen Zeitgesites, die Kulturgeschichte." Detlev Junker in: FAZ vom 15.3.2001"

Global Interdependence provides a new account of world history from the end of World War II to the present, an era when transnational communities began to challenge the long domination of the nation-state. In this single-volume survey, leading scholars elucidate the political, economic, cultural, and environmental forces that have shaped the planet in the past sixty years. Offering fresh insight into international politics since 1945, Wilfried Loth examines how miscalculations by both the United States and the Soviet Union brought about a Cold War conflict that was not necessarily inevitable. Thomas Zeiler explains how American free-market principles spurred the creation of an entirely new economic order--a global system in which goods and money flowed across national borders at an unprecedented rate, fueling growth for some nations while also creating inequalities in large parts of the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. From an environmental viewpoint, J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke contend that humanity has entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene era, in which massive industrialization and population growth have become the most powerful influences upon global ecology. Petra Goedde analyzes how globalization has impacted indigenous cultures and questions the extent to which a generic culture has erased distinctiveness and authenticity. She shows how, paradoxically, the more cultures blended, the more diversified they became as well. Combining these different perspectives, volume editor Akira Iriye presents a model of transnational historiography in which individuals and groups enter history not primarily as citizens of a country but as migrants, tourists, artists, and missionaries--actors who create networks that transcend traditional geopolitical boundaries.

Befinden wir uns auf dem Weg zu einer europaischen Gesellschaft, in der nationalstaatliche Verfasstheit, gemeinsame Traditionen und gleichartige Pragungen durch die Herausforderungen der Globalisierung produktiv zusammenwirken? Eine interdisziplinare Forschergruppe geht dieser Frage systematisch nach. Dabei werden Chancen fur das Gelingen einer europaischen Zivilisation ebenso aufgezeigt wie die Gefahr, dass die Europaer in der Spannung zwischen Globalisierung und Individualisierung ihre Gestaltungsfahigkeit verlieren.

Wie kann man den Prozess der europaischen Integration erklaren und was folgt daraus fur seine weitere Entwicklung? Namhafte Vertreter der Geschichtswissenschaft, der Wirtschaftswissenschaft, der Politikwissenschaft, der Rechtswissenschaft und der Soziologie erlautern, welche Beitrage ihre Disziplinen zur Erklarung des europaischen Integrationsprozesses entwickelt haben und diskutieren die Moeglichkeiten ihrer Verknupfung zu einer interdisziplinaren Integrationstheorie. Die Antriebskrafte der europaischen Integration kommen dabei ebenso in den Blick wie die Entwicklungsdynamik der europaischen Institutionen, der Wandel von Staatlichkeit in Europa und das Demokratieproblem in der Europaischen Union. Konzepte und Ergebnisse der Disziplinen werden zu einer gemeinsamen Integrationswissenschaft verbunden.

Vertiefung und Erweiterung charakterisieren die Europaische Union zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Der vorliegende Band bietet Analysen von Motiven und Initiativen europaischer Einigungspolitik, die zu der gegenwartigen Situation gefuhrt haben, und zeigt Entwicklungsperspektiven wesentlicher Politikbereiche der Union auf.
Vertiefung und Erweiterung erscheinen als ein dialektischer Prozess, der das Gemeinschaftsbewusstsein der Europaer verstarkt.
"

Zum 100. Geburtstag von Charles de Gaulle, 50 Jahre nach seinem legen daren Aufrufvom 18. Juni 1940, den Kampf gegen die deutschen Invasoren fortzusetzen, und 20 Jahre nach seinem 'Ibd, scheinen die aussenpolitischen Visionen des Grundungsprasidenten der V. Republik in uberraschender Weise Wirklichkeit zu werden. Das "Europa vom Atlantik bis zum Ural," das er gegen die Konfrontation der Blocke als Zielperspektive europaischer Politik beschworen hat, ist keine utopische Chimare mehr: Das System von Jalta, wie de Gaulle es in plakativer Vereinfachung genannt hat, ist zerfal len; der Ost-West-Konflikt hat sich aufgelost, und die Gestaltung des Euro paischen Hauses ist zur politischen Tagesaufgabe geworden. Gleichzeitig ist die deutsche Einheit exakt zu den Bedingungen zustande gekommen, die de Gaulle schon bei seiner ersten Begegnung mit Adenauer in Colombey-Ies-deux-Eglises im September 1958 genannt hat: nach Abstim mung mit allen europaischen Nachbarn, unter Verzicht auf die Gebiete jen seits von Oder und Neisse und verbunden mit einem definitiven Verzicht des vereinten Deutschlands auf den Besitz von ABC-Waffen. In der glei chen Novemberwoche 1990, in der das Centenarium de Gaulles begangen wurde, konnte die KSZE-Gipfelkonferenz in Paris das Ende der Nach kriegszeit proklamieren. Die frappierende Ubereinstimmung von Vision und Wirklichkeit ruft freilich auch Skepsis auf den Plan."

"unsere Consuln mussen] in Turkei und Indien, Agenten etc. ] die ganze Mohamedan. Welt gegen dieses verhasste, verlogene, gewissenlose Kramervolk zum wilden Aufstand entflammen; denn wenn wir uns verbluten sollen, dann soll England wenigstens Indien verlieren." Kaiser Wilhelm II., auf dem Hohepunkt der Juli-Krise 1914"