Recently declassified archival materials offer new insight into the reasons behind the changing dynamics of transatlantic relations since the 1970s, according to Thomas Alan Schwartz, co-editor of The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter.
Schwartz, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University, and Matthias Schulz, co-editor of The Strained Alliance, will discuss their book’s findings on Dec. 2 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Schulz, a professor of history of international relations and transnational history at the University of Geneva, previously taught at Vanderbilt.
Schwartz said their research provides historical perspective on recent alliance disputes. “These include the chronic difficulty the alliance has had in dealing with ‘out-of-area’ crises like the Middle East during the 1970s and Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years,” Schwartz said.
He said that the overall book focuses on how U.S.-Western European relations worsened during the era of détente with the Eastern bloc of nations. “In addition, we take issue with the conventional view that progress in European integration was the result of U.S. imperial design or support,” Schwartz said. “We have significant evidence that at least since the 1970s, European nations have become more integrated as the result of U.S.-European discord.”
Schulz noted that the book looks at not only the American angle but also the perspectives of our European allies. In addition, the actions of European decision-makers were analyzed. Declassified documents used for the research have come from the United States, Germany, France and Great Britain.
“Contributors to the book demonstrate that a common alliance strategy has always been a difficult undertaking, often the result of bitter confrontation and painful compromises,” Schwartz said. “As we have seen with recent disputes concerning the United States and its allies, there has never been a ‘golden age’ of transatlantic harmony.”
The collection of essays in The Strained Alliance, which has been published by Cambridge University Press, is based on a 2004 conference at Vanderbilt called “The Atlantic Community Unraveling?”
Live video of the presentation will be available on Dec. 2 at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=550593.
Media contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu