Britain, France and the Struggle for Leadership in the European Union

This book takes a fresh look at British responses to European unity, challenging standard assumptions that Brits were not interested in Europe and that governments did the best they could in seeking to balance worldwide interests. By contrast, the author argues that the American alliance distracted leaders from other policy options. An Anglo-French alliance could have reconfigured Euro-American relations, offsetting the shrinking of power. As well as reassessing the policies of Bevin, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan and Wilson towards Europe the book highlights a dimension neglected by the literature - the impact of the post-1945 revolution in international affairs on a run-down, overloaded Whitehall engine room which lacked the capacity for forward strategic thinking. This analysis, unlike many accounts that focus almost wholly on British decision-making, investigates French attitudes and the dynamics of the mesentente cordiale.