Külpolitika - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet elméleti-politikai folyóirata - 1984 (11. évfolyam)
1984 / 5. szám - A tanulmányok orosz és angol nyelvű tartalmi kivonata
Ferenc Gazdag: The alternatives of independence and integration in western Europe following the Second World War (Thirty years of the West European Union) The bipolarity of the post-Second World War situation made it impossible for the Western European Great Powers to continue with a foreign policy based on the balance of power. An economically and militarily enfeebled western Europe became part of the Atlantic Block led by the U.S. The period of integration lasted up to 1954 and had two stages. The first was concluded by the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in April 1949. The second was that of the inclusion and controlled equality of the Federal. Republic of Germany; the required international law manipulations being highly complicated. The 1954 Paris agreements finally put the structure of Atlantic Europe in an operational state as far as security policy was concerned. They put the dot on the i of organizing the western half of Europe into a block and acted as the immediate antecedents of the conclusion of the Warsaw Treaty. The West European Union which primarily served as the form in international law of the controlled equality of the Federal Republic of Germany, was one of the agreements signed in 1945. This is the sole western European body which is entitled to discuss military and security questions, since unlike other bodies such as the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, it did not automatically hand over this right to NATO. That is why there is so much talk of the Western European Union as a revived framework for independent western European defence. Transatlantic disputes between the US and Western Europe since the end of the seventies are directly or indirectly Linked with the mil itary strengthening of NATO, the greater share of military expenditure of the couhtries of Western Europe, and a strategy which, as part of American policy, wishes to offer incentives to the states of Western Europe to develop more quickly their conventional forces to be used in confrontation with the Soviet Union. The author argues that, given the international atmosphere which has been pregnant with tension since the early eighties, the independent defence of Western Europe has not got a hope. At the most one might speak of a greater role for the nuclear forces of Great Britain and France. Lacking a common political will it is therefore unlikely that there should be any substantial change in the modest role of the West-European Union. János I. Szirtes: Austria’s western policy Thanks to its social system most of Austria’s foreign links are with western countries. Being a capitalist country Austria is organically and institutionally linked to the West. This implies more than bilateral relations with particular countries and is teherefore not problem-free for Austria or the country’s neutrality. Austria’s integratipnal policy has a political and an economic projection. The desire for political cooperation is a sign of capitalist commitment and also has historical precedents, after all the Pan-Europa movement sprang from Austrian soil. Nevertheless neutrality prohibited participation in political integration. Therefore the Council of of Europe which lacks a supra-national aspect turned out to be the favoured institution of such efforts, making it possible for Austria not to be left entirely out in the cold as regards the western Euroepan processes of integration. As time passed, however, Austria had to wake up to the fact that, on the one hand, this institution lost is importance and influence in western Europe, the Austrians, precisely because they were .aware that they could not hall'a halt to such process, potentiated their activity in order to slow it down. On the other hand the Austrians also were made aware of the circumstance that the countries of the European Economic Community acted as a block within the Council of Europe. In other words their previously determined and coordinated point of view, which comes about without Austria being able to exercise any sort of influence, prejudices the deliberations of the Council from the start. Economic cooperation started historically with the Marshall Plan and the foundation membership of the OEEC. As economic cooperation with the West spread, the foundation of international capitalist economic organizations soon found itself on the agenda. What the Austrians were primarily after was the acceptance of west-European free trade, The foundation of the European Economic Community soon put paid to such hopes. In order to overcome the economic disadvantages Austria therefore became a foundation of ÉFTA thongh this was intended as a temporary measure only, in the hope that the two capitalist economic organizations would soon conclude a mutual free trade agreement. Since there was no chance of this negotiations started on some kind of link with the EEC, with full membership not being excluded at the start. Since that could not be reconciled with the neutrality of the country, a limited free trade agreement was finally VII
