The European Defence Community — Precursor to the CFSP?

Abstract

Ideas of a federal Europe enjoy a long history of intellectual endeavour. The notion of a unified and prosperous Europe is one that came to the fore in the mid-nineteenth century. Federal ideals though remained hostage to the balance of power politics of the day, being first tarnished by the Crimean War and then seemingly smashed by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the collapse of the Concert of Europe. The shock of the First World War, perhaps surprisingly, evoked few suggestions of federal solutions to Europe’s parlous security, with the notable exception of the Briand Plan. In this century the federal concept found its most eloquent proponent in Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalegri, whose 1923 calls for European federalism in his ‘Manifeste Paneuropéen’ struck a chord in post-World War II Europe dominated by the US and the Soviet Union.¹