ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical legacy of the post 1945 efforts to establish a defense and security framework. It also examines the breakdown of the transatlantic bargain and the background to the reactivation of West European Union (WEU) and the relaunch of the European Economic Community in the mid-1980s. The chapter looks at the impact of the end of the Cold War on the European Economic Community (EEC), and examines the Intergovernmental Conference on Political Union and WEU in 1991. In the 1970s, the assumptions underpinning the institutional framework were increasingly challenged at both the Atlantic and European levels. At the Atlantic level, the decline of the United States was everywhere evident. Atlantic strains in the 1970s partly stemmed from, and partly led to, moves toward further European integration. The reactivation of WEU took place at the same time as the EEC considered institutional reforms, culminating in the signing of the Single European Act in 1986.
