number 1 - Centre d'études et de recherches européennes Robert ...

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Introductory note – Introduction – Einführung
culations, the concern for modernization, the solution of the German problem,
security, all gets tangled up in an apparently inextricable knot. It is up to the historian,
not to cut this Gordian knot, because this amounts to violating the historic reality,
but to undo it very patiently.
Recent investigations show that, from the beginning, the European construction
has been linked to the question of leadership, which is an important concern, in the
French initiative of May 9 1950 as well as in Great-Britain’s first candidature.
Beyond the so-called ”Realpolitik”, preoccupations with rank and prestige are
involved, i.e. the – real or imaginary- position that a State assigns itself on the
international scene. Now, leadership and integration are terms difficult to reconcile.
If, in 1950, Jean Monnet believed that only a small integrated Europe could guarantee
France a leading role, Charles de Gaulle and Harold Macmillan, on the contrary,
counted on a Europe of States in order to ensure their country the first place.