This thesis is a study of revolutionary change in European international society. The core argument is that the appearance of supranational union in the 1950s is best comprehended as the outcome of a contested attempt to remake the states system in Europe. The project 0f Six presented two central challenges to power-politics precepts: an aspiration to permanent peace among states; and prescriptions for partial cessions of national sovereignty in pursuance of that object. The enterprise yielded five major attempts to institutionalise peaceful union in the period 1947-57. Two resulted in major triumphs: the ECSC and EEC Three, however, were from the federalist standpoint sensational failures: the OEEC Council of Europe, and EDC. How and why did European integration progress even as it failed so spectacularly? I There is no systematic analysis which subjects this puzzle to theoretical an~ empirical evaluation from an international relations perspective. This work seeks to produce such an analysis. It draws from the "English School"-a much neglected approach in European studies-to provide a coherent account of integration in the lead up to the 1957 accords . .As a preliminary to the historical investigation, the thesis formulates a conceptual framework appropriate for the evaluation of deep change in the system of states. I redevelops the central concepts of "international society" and "world society" to provide a benchmark for assessing distinct paradigms of European union and the types of international change implied by them. The historical argument proceeds on two planes The "micro" story explains specific successes and failures in integration as products 0f material and ideological forces acting in concert. This demonstrates that it is detrimental to analysis to consider either set of factors in isolation, as is the tendency of the dominant theoretical approaches in international relations, rationalism and constructivism. There is also a "macro" story: the study shows that the Rome attainment was possible because the dynamics of ideological contestation which preceded it led to the reconfiguration or supranationality as a middle course of integration, itself enabled and constrained by the, configuration of material interests. What emerged in 1957 was not a fully-fledged world society postulated on the liquidation of the nation state, as envisaged by radical federalists. Nor was it a loose association of states consonant with the goals and values of pluralist international society, as pursued by Britain. The union of Six represented instead a genus of federalism which combined a Grotian understanding of the primacy of the nation state with a deep commitment to lasting comity in Europe.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:600720 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Kello, Lucas |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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