ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the reasons for the failure of the "grand design" for a European superstate in favour of the more limited functionalist model. It looks at the continuing relevance of the older debates for the contemporary one on European unification in the context of the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. By the end of World War II it would be untrue to say that the resistance fully supported the breaking down of state structures in favour of a European federation. There was certainly considerable ideological momentum behind the idea, but it needed more concrete form after the disparate statements and manifestos issued during the war itself. The pattern of European unification under the umbrella of superpower domination during the Cold War has not left the European Union in a particularly strong position to respond to the challenges of a new and more unpredictable era following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
