An international team examines the often neglected contexts of European unity, in which the hopes for integration and the difficulties involved are viewed from the political, economic and cultural limits of their success. The missed opportunities for integration in Eastern Europe are viewed in light of power politics, and American policy towards shaping Europe is discussed along with the pro- and anti-American stances adopted by Britain and Germany. The two most important considerations during the integration period, economic and strategic, are explored from British, Italian and Scandinavian perspectives, with Eastern Europe providing the base for an analysis of Comecon. Tensions between international (global) and pan-Euroepan forces provide the focus for a look at the historical origins of issues which are emerging as the political map of Europe is once again transformed.

An international team examines the often neglected contexts of European unity, in which the hopes for integration and the difficulties involved are viewed from the political, economic and cultural limits of their success. The missed opportunities for integration in Eastern Europe are viewed in light of power politics, and American policy towards shaping Europe is discussed along with the pro- and anti-American stances adopted by Britain and Germany. The two most important considerations during the integration period, economic and strategic, are explored from British, Italian and Scandinavian perspectives, with Eastern Europe providing the base for an analysis of Comecon. Tensions between international (global) and pan-Euroepan forces provide the focus for a look at the historical origins of issues which are emerging as the political map of Europe is once again transformed.

" How the United States helped restore a Europe battered by World War II and created the foundation for the postwar international order Seventy years ago, in the wake of World War II, the United States did something almost unprecedented in world history: It launched and paid for an economic aid plan to restore a continent reeling from war. The European Recovery Plan—better known as the Marshall Plan, after chief advocate Secretary of State George C. Marshall—was in part an act of charity but primarily an act of self-interest, intended to prevent postwar Western Europe from succumbing to communism. By speeding the recovery of Europe and establishing the basis for NATO and diplomatic alliances that endure to this day, it became one of the most successful U.S. government programs ever. The Brookings Institution played an important role in the adoption of the Marshall Plan. At the request of Arthur Vandenberg, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Brookings scholars analyzed the plan, including the specifics of how it could be implemented. Their report gave Vandenberg the information he needed to shepherd the plan through a Republican-dominated Congress in a presidential election year. In his foreword to this book, Brookings president Strobe Talbott reviews the global context in which the Truman administration pushed the Marshall Plan through Congress, as well as Brookings' role in that process. The book includes Marshall's landmark speech at Harvard University in June 1947 laying out the rationale for the European aid program, the full text of the report from Brookings analyzing the plan, and the lecture Marshall gave upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The book concludes with an essay by Bruce Jones and Will Moreland that demonstrates how the Marshall Plan helped shape the entire postwar era and how today's leaders can learn from the plan's challenges and successes. "

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject History of Germany - Postwar Period, Cold War, grade: 2,0, University of Luxembourg, language: English, abstract: The following essay aims at depicting the European continent in the way it emerged from the ruins of he Second World War and how it presented itself in the immediate years thereafter. In a first step it will be shown how exactly the victorious powers of the war, namely the United States and the Soviet Union, set about re-shaping the continent along ideological, cultural and political lines. Secondly, the many efforts conducted in order to solve the continent's vastly economic problems will also be depicted. Finally it will be outlined in what manner these and other decisions can ultimately be perceived as the foundations of institutions which eventually led to the European integration process.