Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book covers a timeframe of three-quarters of a century, bookended by two treaties, Versailles in 1918 and Maastricht in 1993. It examines the catastrophically defective Versailles Treaty and consider the diplomacy of the inter-war years. The book then analyses the diplomatic and military strategy of the Axis and Allied powers respectively. It also poses the question whether the Americans sought, rather than merely acquired, superpower status by 1945. The book analyses the origins of the Cold War in Europe. It then deals with the Suez Crisis of 1956, a familiar narrative of how and why the Anglo-French–Israeli military action was aborted. The book also focuses on European integration charting the origins and the early phase of enlargement in 1973 when Ireland, Denmark and Britain join. It examines the Maastricht Treaty and how Margaret Thatcher’s opposition to it was overcome.