ABSTRACT
Since the late 1940s, the fundamental reason for the quest to achieve European unity has been to help establish a better system of peaceful worldwide interaction between states. The post-World War II generation in West Europe has worked for the goal of peaceful cooperation. This chapter considers whether the group of West European states has demonstrated a new level of assertiveness by successfully reconciling national security interests and global security needs within an effort of regional cooperation. European governments have tried to organize their own defense through security cooperation. This process began with the Western European Union (WEU) and the European Defense Community in the early fifties. WEU suited Paris' desire for a Europeanization of security policy without the price of reintegration into the military command structure of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Bonn aimed to increase public support for Europe's role in Western security policy.
