Introduction

Abstract

In the July 1952 issue of Foreign Affairs, Gaullist Deputy Jacques Soustelle argued that

The fundamental defect of the Atlantic Alliance … is that it is merely — Atlantic. Actually it is restricted to the North Atlantic. It would have value as a regional section of a larger grouping, but in itself it is as inadequate as a breastplate covering half the chest or a helmet protecting the forehead but not the back of the neck.¹

Soustelle’s claim was not entirely accurate, since the alliance did have a Mediterranean, and even a North African, component (Italy, Southern France and Algeria were included in the treaty area at this time). But all parties recognised that these were exceptions which were not, and indeed could not have been, justified as elements of a geostrategically coherent conception of Southern European security.