ABSTRACT
This book began with a simple proposition. After World War I, the economic coercion pushed by George Clemenceau in the Treaty of Versailles led to German resentment, the rise of Hitler and World War II. After World War II, Jean Monnet had a better idea. It would be called shared prosperity rather than economic coercion. Despite centuries of war and hatred between the French and the Germans, Jean Monnet and his cohorts planned to create a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The French and Germans would bond by working together on common tasks. The ECSC, along with the collective defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), would turn French and German enemies into friends. The ECSC and NATO would reduce threat perceptions on each side. George Marshall would follow much the same vision of Jean Monnet with his Marshall Plan, which helped Germany rebuild its factories. Instead of punishing it once again with economic coercion, the idea was to create a web of economic interdependence and shared prosperity.
