Preview

Britain And European Integration Since 1945 Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1608 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Britain And European Integration Since 1945 Analysis
The relationship between United Kingdom and European Union has always been unique. One tried to be closer while the other tried to be distance yet still influential. David Gowland, Arthur Turner and Alex Wright on “Britain and European Integration Since 1945” study the relations between British policy and the process of European Integration since 1945. The study focused on Britain policy that they adopt as the European Union changed. Britain attitude since the end of the Second World War toward the mainland Europe has been indecisive, reactive, and a growing sense of distrust. Yet, Britain continue trying to maximize their influence in the process of European integration while minimizing their commitment to the outcome.
Despite that, in the end, the authors believe, that the important factor of the development of the European integration has been Britain’s absence from the early key schemes of the integration process, such as the Schuman Plan, Treaties of Rome, and the Eurozone. Britain absence, if unintentionally on the British side,
…show more content…
Imagined because people inside even the smallest nation may never know most of their fellow people, meet them, or hear them, yet in their minds, there lives the image of their communion. It is limited because even the largest communities out there has finite, if elastic, boundaries. It also sovereign because the concept of nation born in the age where Enlightenment and Revolution destroyed the legitimacy of the hierarchical dynastic realm. Finally, the most important point is, a nation is imagined as a community because it always developed a deep horizontal comradeship. I agree with Anderson definition of nation, it is bound by comradeship between people, which made this book relevant to the thesis written because through the comradeship nationalism can either be ‘positive’ or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout the history of European integration, the major UK parties have debated on all different aspects of Europe and the impacts of membership on Britain itself. From both these debates and party policies, it is clear to see that whilst there is generally a consensus over Europe, some issues have been a cause of disagreement among the major parties. In this essay I will analyse the policies and actions of the major UK parties that concern the EU and be able to conclude to what extent they agree over Europe.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Archick, K 2015, ‘The European Union: questions and answers’, Congressional Research Service, p. 4.…

    • 885 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    stay 1 hunna

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Benedict Anderson defined a nation as "an imagined political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign".[1] Members hold in their minds a mental image of their affinity: for example, the nationhood felt with other members of your nation when your "imagined community" participates in a larger event such as the Olympic Games. As Anderson puts it, a nation "is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Many people believe that being a member of the UE is extremely beneficial for the UK; therefore it would be detrimental for the UK if they were to withdraw themselves from the EU. Specifically, the EU is a Regional Security Guarantor. On 9th May 1950 Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, outlined the original aim of the EU to: ‘make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible’. With regard to this aim, no member states have gone to war with one another; this emphasizes the idea that the EU is successful in its original aims to keep everlasting peace. The EU is able to assist countries when negotiating significant international treaties and conventions and is able to ensure equitable international governance takes place. Additionally, the EU confronts many security issues such as: attending to WMD, combating illegal accumulation, and many other defense and security related issues.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Eurocrisis

    • 3363 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Despite an intricate and developed model of regional integration as well as the will from European leaders to lead a united front towards European integration, the EU integration model did present its flaws and showed its weaknesses leading to the current EURO crisis… let us now begin by looking at the European integration process pre-crisis.…

    • 3363 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In order to understand better the concept of nationalism, Anderson starts analyzing the word that is the root of nationalism, which is the word nation. Anderson, then, defines it as “…an imagined political community” that is imagined in both limitation and sovereignty. Anderson uses the word imagined to define nation, because he affirms that even the people from a small community, will not know everyone from that community, or meet them or even hear about them. The people from this same community will, however, keep in their minds the idea of what they have in common and imagine a common community between them. Anderson goes on and quotes Gellner, who states that “Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist.” This is important to know, because it makes clearer the idea that a nation, and more specifically, nationalism, are concepts created based on borders that were not previously there and similarities that made people to join one another to become nationalistic, but even though they had common practices, religion or similar territories, they were not necessarily the same group of people. The differences between groups that have little territorial distance from one another were many times forgotten and people started to consider themselves part of the same culture and territory. People became part of the same so called “nation”.…

    • 2382 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    The decades of the 1960’s and 70’s were undoubtedly geared towards a period of economic integration within European nations. Integration was inevitably triggered by the geopolitical and economic considerations that emerged after the Second World War for the European states. A restrained Germany alongside US and French interest in economic progression through increased trade links are the key factors behind why European integration occurred. The Treaty of Rome would predominantly bring on European integration in 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC). This would progressively come into force through the elimination of tariffs by 19681. The EEC would progress economically in these decades through the formation of the ECC customs union, increased trade between EEC and EFTA (European Financial Trade Association) members. Though the competition brought about by the EEC increased economic performance in the 60’s, the Luxembourg Compromise and the resignation of de Gaulle alongside British accession into the EEC led to economic stagnation and a period of ‘Eurosclerosis’2 in the 1970’s.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    The establishment of the European Union (EU) has its foundations of integration belonging to an economic community: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) 1950.1 There has been a cycle of support, peaking in the 1990 at 71% and the lowest of 48% in 2004, as measured by the Eurobarometer 2. There is a clear divide between people who support the EU and Eurosceptics. Support for the EU can be encapsulated by Herman Van Rompuy, president if the European Council, ‘The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a ‘lie’’3 Eurosceptics on the other hand argue for the remodelling of the EU or the rejection of. Most notably the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) have stated in their manifesto that they wish to exit the EU as, ‘It does mean the end of Britain as an independent European state. It means the end of a thousand years of history.’4 This is a case of hard euroscepticism, as Taggart and Szcerbiak established, as opposed to soft euroscepticism which focuses upon remodelling. Therefore integration of the EU has caused a larger rift between those who support and those who do not.…

    • 2485 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    1955 saw the start of the Western European Union and talks began at Messina about a European Economic Community, the EEC. Britain maintained a strong opinion when referring to Europe and the EEC. This being scepticism, Britain didn’t take these plans very seriously. Such feelings were clearly displayed, when Britain didn’t even send an Ambassador to the Messina Conference. Instead, in keeping with their, thus far sceptical approach, only an observer was sent on the British behalf, rather than Foreign Sectary of State Harold MacMillan. Britain’s feelings hadn’t changed by 1957 when the Treaty of Rome, which created the EEC, which was signed by the six. Italy, France, Western Germany and the Benelux countries, but not by Britain.…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marshall Plan

    • 3010 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Nonetheless, the essay makes less innovative and original arguments than it purports to, and it does not adequately analyze the meaning of "dividing Europe." Cox and Kennedy-Pipe imply that "dividing Europe" is equivalent to starting the Cold War. I will argue that indeed the United States and its Western allies bear much of the responsibility for dividing Europe—but that the policy was in fact a strategy for an ideological and geopolitical conflict that was already emerging. The Marshall Plan confirmed a division that events from the formation of rival Polish governments-in-waiting in 1944 through stalemates on Germany in early 1947 had already made difficult to bridge.…

    • 3010 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Furthermore, Britain had lost their “Great” superpower status after 1945 and did not yet want to sacrifice the power they still held to a supranational institution as the EEC was suggesting. There was initial support from Britain towards Europe as they focussed on defence and…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    While the European Union was originally made as a project to unite European nations against the possibility of future wars, the initial focus of the Union was on trade and economic union. However, as more and more nations joined and its mandate expanded in scope, an incongruity between popular democratic representation and expansion has developed. ‘Democratic deficit is a concept used principally in the argument that the European Union and its various bodies suffer from a lack of democracy and seem inaccessible to the ordinary citizen because their methods of operating are so complex.’…

    • 1812 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Radaelli, Claudio M., ‘Europeanisation: Solution or Problem, European Integration online Papers’ (EIoP), Vol. 8, No. 16. [OnlineAvailable at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=601163, Date Accessed: 27/10/2013, 1:15pm…

    • 2731 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marks and Spencer v Halsey case is an international case about tax base harmonization. However, M&S might be called a “pro-European” policy case, because it implies an over-arching vision of a unified Europe. A unified Europe implies political, economic, and cultural integration, as well as cooperation among member states. What are the implications of such a vision for member states? Is integration contributing something positive or negative to member states and to the larger world? Will integrative efforts paradoxically provoke rigidity as individual states seek to preserve their national ideals? Can national identity incorporate change? All of these questions are relevant today, making M&S so much more than a typical technical tax case.…

    • 2023 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Euroscepticism and Uk

    • 2238 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Because of that, Great Britain is often described as ‘an awkward partner’ and ‘reluctant European’ what leads this report to its main question - how has British Euroscepticism affected Britain’s role in Europe?…

    • 2238 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays