Including several contributions from an international group of historians and experts of international relations, this book analyses the relationship between the United Nations and European integration. The book, which covers from 1945 to the present, is organised into three sections, each dedicated to a different phase of the integration process, during which EU-UN relations had a different character. The essays of the first section deal with the 1950s and 1960s and show the active part played by UN bodies in shaping the integration process. In the second part, covering the 1970s and 1980s, it is the European Community which is shown to have had a visible impact on the life and the decision-making process of several UN bodies. Finally, the third part of the book, on the post-Cold War years, describes a more complex situation, characterised by new geopolitical responsibilities of the European Union, but also by its deep internal transformations due to several treaty revisions and the enlargement to Eastern Europe.
Thus, dynamics similar to those described in the first section return, with UN bodies shaping some of the internal rules of the EU, but these coexist with strengthened European activity in the United Nations, in some cases leading to real partnerships.