Owercoming the Crisis of Détente, 1979–1983
Owercoming the Crisis of Détente, 1979–1983

Coordinating Eastern Policies between Paris, Bonn, and London

Author(s): Christian Wenkel
Subject(s): Diplomatic history, Political history, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Central European University Press
Keywords: Cold War;East and West;France;Franco-German relations;Franco-Brittish relations
Summary/Abstract: The lack of substantial U.S. détente policy in 1979 and 1980, and the external pressure of the crisis of East-West relations, forged a certain convergence of views between Paris, Bonn, and London, not only on Cold War issues but also on the development of European integration and the European role at the international arena. A concrete result was a temporary coordination of détente policies during the peak of this crisis of international relations and especially during the transition-period between the Carter and the Reagan administrations. Even if there was no direct impact of Cold War tensions on the European integration process as in the 1950s,the initiatives for deepening the political integration since the mid-1980scan well be interpreted as a result of this rather short intermezzo of intense European policy coordination efforts. The idea of a common Franco-German Ostpolitik, however, a French political purpose since 1963, had to remain an illusion only. At the end of the Cold War, the fundamental differences between France and the FRG with regard to the underlying concepts and objectives of détente in Europe became fully clear once again,as the numerous misunderstandings during the process of Germany’s reunification in 1989/90 bore out

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