This text argues that the process of West European integration was encouraged and facilitated by the Cold War, in which the threat posed by the Soviet Union temporarily inhibited internal conflicts, and in which American hegemony provided the relatively stable and secure economic, political and military framework in which the major West European countries were able to co-operate and take major steps towards the ultimate ideal of a European Union.

Peter van Ham is Senior Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute, The Netherlands, and Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.