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Economic Aspects of an Atlantic Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

William Diebold Jr
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Extract

The existence of an Atlantic Community with important economic aspects is revealed in the past and present relations among the countries of western Europe and North America. This Community is something less than the fusion of the nations of the Atlantic area advocated by some; it is something more comprehensive and more pervasive than the organizational alternative to “partnership” that others mean by the word. The Atlantic Community dealt with in this article is a state of affairs more than a concept; it does not have to be precisely delineated so long as we can discern its solid central mass. This Atlantic Community—such as it is, and whatever exactly it is—is the child of history and policy. Both genealogies are clearly established and well-known; to recall them helps pose the major questions of the present and future

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Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , Summer 1963 , pp. 663 - 682
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1963

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References

1 For statistical convenience, “Atlantic” is usually used in this article to mean the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. There is some discrepancy between the OECD export figures, which are used in this section, and those from the League of Nations, The Network of World Trade, but not enough to make any difference to the main lines of the picture. The prewar figures on steel production that follow came from European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) High Authority, Un siécle de développement de la production d'acier (Luxembourg: ECSC High Authority, 1957), pp. 22–29Google Scholar; postwar figures are from OECD, European Economic Community (EEC), and United States Bureau of Mines publications. For these and other figures and calculations I am indebted to Helena L. Stalson, economist on the staff of the Council on Foreign Relations.

2 The figures for steel probably exaggerate the growth of economic strength outside the Adantic area. Steel production has often been undertaken or expanded for reasons of prestige. United States output was well below capacity in 1961. The data on Communist China—recorded as over 4 percent of the world total in 1961—are in doubt.

3 Atlantic trade was 41.6 percent of world trade in 1928, 35.7 percent in 1938, 31.3 percent in 1950, and 37.9 percent in 1961.

4 Lecture at the University of London, reported in Die Welt, 01 24, 1963Google Scholar.