Intergovernmental Organ izations 229The idea of a united Eu rope goes back centuries. Both Immanuel Kant and Jean- Jacques
Rousseau presented plans on how to unite Eu rope.^10 After World War I, idealists
dreamed that a united Eu rope could have forestalled the conflagration. World War II
only intensified these sentiments. Hence, after the conclusion of World War II, vigor-
ous debate ensued over the future organ ization of Eu rope. On the one hand were the
federalists: drawing on the writings of Rousseau, they believed that because sovereign
states instigated wars, peace was pos si ble only if states gave up their sovereignty and
invested in a higher federal body. States eventually could eliminate military competi-
tion, the root cause of war, if they joined with other states, each one surrendering
some pieces of sovereignty to a higher unit. Advocates of federalism proposed the
Eu ro pean Defense Community, which would have placed the military under com-
munity control, thus touching the core of national sovereignty.
On the other hand were the functionalists: their principal proponent, Jean Monnet,
believed that the forces of nationalism, in the end, could be undermined by the logic of
economic integration. Beginning with the creation of the Eu ro pean Coal and Steel
Community (the pre de ces sor of the Eu ro pean Economic Community, or EEC), he
proposed cooperative ventures in nonpo liti cal issue areas. It was anticipated that these
ventures would spill over eventually from the economic arena to issues of national security.
The federalist Eu ro pean Defense Community was defeated by the French Parliament in
1954, and the functionalists’ logic prevailed. No one at the time could have envisioned a
union that in 2016 would bring together more than 500 million citizens in 28 countries,
many of them able to travel freely with a burgundy EU passport. Nor could they have
imagined the union enjoying an economy of more than $17.7 trillion (or 18 percent of
the world’s GDP), and 19 of its countries using a common currency, the euro.
HIstOrIcal EvOlutIOn
The impetus for the creation of the Eu ro pean Union grew not only from the devasta-
tion of the war time experience but also from the security threat that remained. Urged
on by the United States, an eco nom ically strong Eu rope (made pos si ble by the reduc-
tion of trade barriers) knew it would be better equipped to counter the Soviet threat
if it integrated. Eu rope also understood that if the Germans were enmeshed in such
agreements, they would pose a lesser threat to other states. Of course, U.S.- based mul-
tinational corporations would also benefit from an expanded market. Thus, security
threats, economic incentives, and a postwar vision all played a role in the drive of
po liti cal elites for Eu ro pean integration.^11
The Eu ro pean Coal and Steel Community, placing French and (West) German
coal and steel production under a common “High Authority,” was the first step toward
realizing this idea. Although Germany was treated as an equal, its key economic sector
supporting the arms industry was brought into a community with France, Italy, and