ABSTRACT
In the early 1970s, the nature of the transatlantic debate about the Middle East changed. In launching the project of European Political Cooperation (EPC), the member states of the European Community (EC) set out to harmonise their foreign policies, and specifically to develop a joint European policy on the ArabIsraeli conflict. In addition to the traditional bilateral discussions on the Middle East and the – often rather insubstantial – corresponding consultations within NATO, there was now a new forum designed to allow for collective European diplomacy. Marking a milestone in the history of European unification, EPC during its first few years caused some severe strains in the transatlantic relationship. These strains were not exclusively related to differences over the Middle East, the wider issue at stake being Europe’s quest for an enhanced role within the West. Yet it was in the context of the 1973 October War and the ensuing oil crisis that the significance of EPC for transatlantic relations became most apparent, and that some of the most acrimonious clashes between Europe and the US during the Cold War occurred. This chapter is structured into three sections. The first section covers the intra-European efforts in the early 1970s to harmonise national policies and to define a common position on the Middle East. The second section looks at why the commencement of a European policy on the Middle East brought the EC countries to the point of collision with the US, and with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in particular. Finally, the third section examines the outcome of these transatlantic divisions. It explores why the Europeans eventually accepted US leadership in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict and the oil crisis and generally supported a reinvigoration of NATO. With EPC declining into crisis by 1974, the Europeans had to realise that forging a common foreign policy would take more time than they had initially hoped, and that their path towards becoming an effective actor in the Middle East was bound to remain an uphill struggle.
EPC came into being in 1970. After President Georges Pompidou had lifted the French veto on Britain’s accession to the EC, it was finally possible to resolve the
