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International organizations are ubiquitous in contemporary Europe and the wider world. This book is the first systematic assessment of the interactions of the European Communities (EC) with other Western organizations like NATO, the OECD and the Council of Europe for the period from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Based on fresh archival research, its various contributions explore forms of co-operation and competition between these forums and thus seek to 'provincialize' and 'de-centre' the role of the predecessors of today's European Union. Drawing on examples from a diverse set of policy fields including human rights, the environment, security, culture and regional policy, the book argues that inter-organizational dynamics are crucial to understand why the EC became increasingly hegemonic among the organizations active in governing Europe. In other words, the EU would not be what it is, were it not for the dynamics analyzed in this book. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Review of History.
List of contents
Introduction - Multiple connections in European co-operation: international organizations, policy ideas, practices and transfers 1967-92
1. Facing the Greek junta: the European Community, the Council of Europe and the rise of human-rights politics in Europe
2. Who should pay for pollution? The OECD, the European Communities and the emergence of environmental policy in the early 1970s
3. The true 'EURESCO'? The Council of Europe, transnational networking and the emergence of European Community cultural policies, 1970-90
4. Between cooperation and competitive bargaining: the Council of Europe, local and regional networking, and the shaping of the European Community's regional policies, 1970s-90s
5. Re-designing military security in Europe: cooperation and competition between the European community and NATO during the early 1980s
6. De-centring the European union: policy diffusion among European regional organizations
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About the author
Kiran Klaus Patel is Chair of European and Global History and Jean Monnet Professor at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Wolfram Kaiser is Professor of European Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
Summary
International organizations are ubiquitous in contemporary Europe and the wider world. This book is the first systematic assessment of the interactions of the European Communities (EC) with other Western organizations like NATO, the OECD and the Council of Europe for the period from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Based on fresh archival research, its various contributions explore forms of co-operation and competition between these forums and thus seek to ‘provincialize’ and ‘de-centre’ the role of the predecessors of today’s European Union. Drawing on examples from a diverse set of policy fields including human rights, the environment, security, culture and regional policy, the book argues that inter-organizational dynamics are crucial to understand why the EC became increasingly hegemonic among the organizations active in governing Europe. In other words, the EU would not be what it is, were it not for the dynamics analyzed in this book. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Review of History.
