As of this chapter the book turns to the period from the run-up to the take-off of European integration, the years 1947 to 1951. Against the backdrop of the emerging Cold War, the Americans, the British, and the Western Europeans get their hands dirty in actions of institution-building aimed at making a more stable and just post-war European order, centred around new and deeper forms of European and international cooperation. In fact, this was what one could call the unfolding of European integration. Moreover, this second part of the book tries to uncover deeper layers (of psychology and belief) in this history through three crucial sub-histories. This chapter deals with the first of these sub-histories. It traces how the coming about and the workings of the Marshall Plan gradually illuminated an institutional, economic, and political pathway for integration in Western Europe.

The chapter describes the attempt to underwrite peace through trade by creating an International Trade Organization (ITO), creating an international contract for rules-based trade under the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), and creating the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The modern history of the World Trading System may be said to start with ministers gathering in Hakone, Japan, to launch the Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, followed a decade later by the launch of the Uruguay Round Negotiations at Punte del Este, Uruguay. The chapter then traces the journey taken by the WTO, covering twelve WTO Ministerial Conferences from 1996 to 2022.