Overview
- Explores the role of the European Free Trade Association in shaping institutional architecture in post-war Europe
- Draws on evidence from a broad range of European archives including those in Austria, Denmark and France
- Provides key insights into negotiations and institutions at the heart of European integration
Part of the book series: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World (SCCCW)
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book traces the emergence of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) from 1955 to 1963 amid the broader reshaping of the institutional architecture of post-war Europe. It considers the ill-fated Free Trade Area (FTA) proposal, the subsequent creation of EFTA, and the resulting division of Western Europe into two distinct trading blocs. At its core, the book provides an international history of a formative moment of post-war and European integration history, and explores the intense technical discussions among European states as they grappled with the prospect of deeper economic and political unity. It thus provides the first detailed analysis combining the FTA and EFTA negotiations, considering both state and non-state actors. Drawing on archives from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US, as well as the records of the OEEC and EFTA, it examines the decision-making processes of those intimately involved as well as the institutional settings within which they were forced to reconcile their positions. At a key moment of contemporary European friction, the book offers a dialogue between the past and those trying to make sense of events that continue to shape Europe today.
Reviews
—Thorsten Borring Olesen, Jean Monnet Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Matthew Broad is Lecturer in International Relations at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Prior to this, he was an EU Marie Curie Individual Fellow at the University of Turku, Finland. Matthew is the author of the book Harold Wilson, Denmark and the Making of Labour European Policy, 1958–72 (2017) and co-editor of European Integration Beyond Brussels (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
Richard T. Griffiths is Professor Emeritus of International Studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands. An author/editor of over ten academic books, his expertise lies in European integration, economic history, post-war international relations and, increasingly, Chinese foreign/EU policy. Between 1987–95 he was Chair of Contemporary History at the EUI, Florence. He has also held positions at the University of Manchester and the Free University Amsterdam, and visiting professorships in Belgium, Turkey, Portugal and Thailand.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Britain, the Division of Western Europe and the Creation of EFTA, 1955–1963
Authors: Matthew Broad, Richard T. Griffiths
Series Title: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97737-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-97736-8Published: 29 September 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-97739-9Published: 02 October 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-97737-5Published: 28 September 2022
Series ISSN: 2731-6807
Series E-ISSN: 2731-6815
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 344
Topics: History of Modern Europe, Political History, History of Britain and Ireland, Economic History