Helsinki disentangled (1973-75): West Germany, the Netherlands, the EPC and the principle of the protection of human rights

This work is situated at the intersection between the historiographies on European integration, the Cold War, and human rights, and scrutinizes the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, 1973-75) from the specific angle of the history of European integration. According to a narrative that has become standard in historiography, the EC countries achieved remarkable cohesion in the CSCE process through the newly-created European Political Cooperation (EPC), an informal intergovernmental mechanism set up in 1970. This thesis argues instead that the EPC was less successful in achie... Mehr ...