The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
The Strategic Triangle: France, Germany, and the United States in the Shaping of the New Europe
Helga Haftendorn, Georges-Henri Soutou, and Stephen F. Szabo
Book Discussion for The Strategic Triangle on March 8 at the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations.
France is Germany's most important partner in the process of European integration. The United States was long Germany's protector but now is the power balancing Germany's in Europe. And the Franco-American relationship, though less prominent than the other two, has a great impact on both of them.
Taking the perspective of each country by turns, this book discusses a series of economic and diplomatic episodes and asks how they affected the countries' relations with each other, with countries outside this triangle, and with international institutions such as the EU and NATO. It concentrates on the period 1965–95, examining the NATO crisis of 1966–67, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, Ostpolitik, Détente, and the end of the Cold War. The book also discusses the origins of the triangle after the Second World War and devotes an epilogue to the triangle after 9/11.
The Strategic Triangle is based on a conference held in Potsdam, Germany, and a workshop at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
What People are Saying
"This will be a welcome addition, because of the way the book is framed, its comprehensiveness, and the reputation and expertise of the authors."—James Goldgeier, George Washington University
Chapter List
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Relations in a Strategic Triangle—Bonn/Berlin, Paris, and Washington
Part I The European Community at the Crossroads
1 Building Europe: The European Community and the Bonn-Paris-Washington Relationship, 1958–1963, Desmond Dinan
2 Germany and the Discord of Its Allies: The Case of the European Political Union, Martin Koopmann
Part II The NATO Crisis of the 1960s and the Maturation of the Strategic Triangle
3 The NATO Crisis of 1966–1967: Confronting Germany with a Conflict of Priorities, Helga Haftendorn
4 The NATO Crisis of 1966–1967: A French Point of View, Frédéric Bozo
5 The De Gaulle Challenge: The Johnson Administration and the NATO Crisis of 1966–1967, Thomas A. Schwartz
Part III Dealing with the Collapse of Bretton Woods
6 The Search for a New Monetary System: Germany's Balancing Act, Michael Kreile
7 France, European Monetary Cooperation, and the International Monetary System Crisis, 1968–1973, Eric Bussière
8 The United States and the Search for a New Economic and Monetary System in the 1970s, William H. Becker
Part IV Ostpolitik and Détente
9 German Ostpolitik in a Multilateral Setting, Helga Haftendorn
10 President Pompidou, Ostpolitik, and the Strategy of Détente, Georges-Henri Soutou
Part V Testing Détente and Relaunching Europe
11 The United States Tests Détente, Gale A. Mattox
12 From Euromissiles to Maastricht: The Policies of Reagan-Bush and Mitterrand, Samuel F. Wells Jr.
13 Germany and Relaunching Europe, Markus Jachtenfuchs
Part VI NATO and Post–Cold War Challenges
14 Enlarging NATO: The German-American Design for a New Alliance, Stephen F. Szabo
15 NATO and the Balkan Challenge: An American Perspective, Kori Schake
Epilogue: A New Geometry?
Contributors
Index