Book Reviews : Speaking European: The Anglo-Continental Cleavage. W. Horsfall Carter. George Allen & Unwin, 1966, 28/-
| DOI | 10.1177/004711786700300108 |
| Published date | 01 April 1967 |
| Date | 01 April 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
75
is
his
discussion
of
political
problems
that
have
inevitably
arisen
as
a
result
of
fundamental
changes
in
the
international
landscape
since
the
’cold
war’
and
its
bipolar
implications,
those
features
of
the
fifties
that
are
still
conditioning
the
thinking
of
so
many
in
high
positions.
The
author
makes
the
point,
first
of
all,
that
it
is
nonsense
to
blame
all
our
troubles
on
President
de
Gaulle,
that
&dquo;somewhat
out-of-scale
figure&dquo;.
From
the
very
fact
of
European
recovery
a
new
historical
process
set
in,
itself
fortified
by
the
measure
of
success
attendant
upon
the
Community
venture
in
European
economic
integration
but
also
by
the
effect
of
decolonisation
and,
be
it
said,
the
lessons
to
be
drawn
from
the
Cuba
missiles
crisis.
Ineluctably,
today
we
are
coming
up
against
the
two
questions
that
every
one
of
our
Western
societies
has
at
some
point
had
to
deal
with
in
its
domestic
affairs
-
&dquo;How
much
unity
do
we
want?&dquo;
and
&dquo;How
much
pluralism
can
we
stand?&dquo;
How
refreshing
it
is
to
find
an
American
ready
to
accept
the
fact
that
the
late
President
Kennedy’s
Grand
Design
was
in
reality
a
characteristically
simpliste
view
of
the
America-Europe
relationship,
overlooking
essential
psychological
facts
(or
factors)!
To
his
fellow-countrymen
Professor
Kissinger
commends
the
luminous
idea
that
because
the
nations
of
Europe
see
themselves
&dquo;not
simply
as
components
of
a
security
scheme
but
as
expressions
of
a
historical
experience&dquo;,
therefore
&dquo;policies
that
neglect
their
sense
of
identity
may
destroy
the
psychological
basis
of
any
common
effort&dquo;.
It
i.s
not
too
much
to
say
that
the
current
controversy
between
America
and
Europe
(the
French
edition
of
the
book,
by
the
way,
is
entitled
’Atlantic
Misunderstandings’)
does
really
reflect
two
conflicting
conceptions
of
inter-
national
order,
two
different
views
of the
historical
process.
And
the
tragedy
of
it
is
that
&dquo;each
approach
might
have
succeeded
but
for
the
existence
of
the
other&dquo;.
As
regards
Europe’,s
problems
specifically,
Professor
Kissinger
is
amazingly
percipient.
He
understands
that
the
assumption
that
economic
integration
would
inevitably
lead
to
political
unity
was
a
delusion,
also
that
de
Gaulle’s
nationalist
stance,
so
far
from
being
inspired
by
petty
chauvinistic
motives,
so
far
from
stemming
from
any
design
to
establish
French
hegemony,
is
rooted
in
a
clear-sighted
view
of
France’s
spiritual
malaise
and
the
desperate
need
for
his
country’s
revitalization:
the
reason
why
the
policies
enunciated
by
de Gaulle
cause
so
much
disarray
in high
places
is
that
he
is
thinking
ahead
ten
years
or so
while
they
are
concerned
with
the
short
term,
he
is
&dquo;operating
in
a
different
time-frame&dquo;,
as
the
author
succinctly
puts
it.
Professor
Kissinger
is
no
less
convincing
in
his
chapters
on
’The
Berlin
crisis
and
the
Nassau
Agreement’
and
East-
West
relations
and
the
future
of
Germany’.
In
his
final
chapter
the
author
reverts
to
the
Atlantic
context
and
weighs
up
the
merits of
the
two
solutions
offered
for
&dquo;enhancing
Allied
cohesion&dquo;:
(1)
an
improvement
in
the
process
of
consultation;
and
(2)
’)
the
development
of
a
united
Europe
with
federal,
supranational
institutions
as
the
pre-condition
for
an
Atlantic
partnership.
He
gives
cogent
reasons
for
coming
down
in
favour
off
(1),
not
least
because
of
Britain’s
&dquo;ambivalence&dquo;:
the
European
unity
process
has
got
stuck
in
a
rut,
and
de
Gaulle’s
style
has
certainly
had
the
effect
of
confusing
the
issue -
Europe
must
make
her
own
decisions,
on
the
basis
of
the
London-Paris-
Bonn
triangle.
Meanwhile
American
policy
should
concentrate
on
devising
new
forms
of
Atlantic
co-operation:
the
best that
can
be
hoped
for,
in
the
author’s
view,
is
the
establishment,
eventually,
of
an
Executive
Committee
of
the
NATO
Council,
and
it
is
in
fact
in
this
direction -
with
the
tentative
proposals
for
joint
crisis
management -
that
events
seem
to
be
moving.
This
book
is
the
first
of
a
series
of
twelve
major
studies
on
the
future
of
the
Atlantic
community,
sponsored
by
the
Council
on
Foreign
Relations
(America’s
’Chatham
House’),
on
the
basis
of
a
grant
from
the
Ford
Foundation.
W.
HORSEFALL
CARTER
Speaking
European:
The
Anglo-Continental
Cleavage.
W.
Horsfall
Carter.
George
Allen
&
Unwin,
1966,
28/-.
In
the
past
a
certain
euphoria
has
tended
to
surround
British
debates
on
European
union;
all
too
often
the
basic
political
issues
have
been
ignored,
attention
being
concentrated
on
the
supposed
economic
advantages
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