Britain and the Settlement of the West German Rearmament Question in 1954

Abstract

Britain’s relationship with postwar Europe was dictated by three conditions. First, it did not want to be either totally isolated from, or fully committed to, the Continent. If Western Europe was once again invaded, Britain would inevitably be involved and, in order to deter such an invasion, Britain’s security demanded a strong and stable Europe. However, Britain’s continued belief in its great power status also required it to exercise its influence as an intermediary in Europe without jeopardising its position as an extra-European power. Secondly, in order to achieve this objective, Britain needed to recover from the disastrous economic consequences of its exertions during the recent war. It lacked the resources to encourage the establishment of a coalition of West European democracies able to resist the Soviet Union on their own and this necessitated the third condition for the fulfillment of its aims — to bring the United States into Western Europe through the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).¹