5.9.1 European Federalism < ToC 

In War, Peace and Change, Dulles dealt with international organisation on the universal level only, but as time progressed he also discussed some forms of regional organisation. Although his thoughts on regionalism were tentative at first, he defined it as a supra-national organisation in which certain nations merge their economic, political, or military functions to some degree but not entirely.

As Dulles' views on regional organisation began developing in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he vacillated between support and scepticism. In a letter to Quincy Wright, dated December 19, 1939, he endorsed the concept of regionalism. At that time he felt that 'an effort should be made to achieve some form of world organisation which, however, would be merely consultative and the meeting place of the chiefs of state or the ministers of foreign affairs.' But, 'within the framework of this central organisation it might be possible to work out a series of stronger international arrangements, no one of which, however, would attempt at this stage to be world-wide in its scope, but each of which should preferably be 'open-ended' and capable of extension.' These tight organisations could then be stepping stones to larger organisations. Dulles explained that those arrangements would be organised on several different levels.

There might, for instance, be some arrangements which would be regional, others which would be based upon a community of financial and commercial interests, and others which might be based upon a similarity of political institutions. The subject matter of such various agreements might be different. For instance, as illustrative of the first category, there might be an effort to develop the Federal system in Europe. As illustrative of the second category, there might be some monetary agreements as between such countries as the United States, England and France - something like the tripartite monetary agreement formalized. As illustrative of the third type, certain countries, such as some of the "democracies", might make a tentative beginning at some form of political collaboration through a central organisation, the members of which would be elected by the peoples and which might have at least a certain advisory capacity or even veto power with respect to matters of common interest.

These three types of organisation could conceivably have overlapping membership, with some countries belonging to only one and others belonging to several. But these organisations, in Dulles' opinion, would probably not have enforcement mechanisms. He explained that he doubted 'very much if it is feasible or desirable to endow any of these organisations with military or even economic sanctions, and much less do I believe, at this stage, in an international police force.' A few years later, however, Dulles vigorously advocated the desirability of an international police force.

In 1940 a sensational book appeared in the United States under the title, America and a New World Order. Its author, Graeme Keith Howard, the vice-president of General Motors, sent an advance copy to his friend, John Foster Dulles, for review and criticism. Subsequently Dulles heartily endorsed the book. Apparently, he thought its thesis had much to recommend itself to an American audience at the height of the war.

Howard asserted that it would be wrong to follow the reasoning of world federalists to establish a global federation by appropriating the same strategy which was successfully used by the original American states to join forces under one federal government: 'It is idealistic nonsense to assume that states will voluntarily surrender their power. The analogy so often employed, that the American colonies surrendered portions of their power in 1789 in order to form a federation of states, is entirely fallacious.' Howard argued that 'the American colonies consolidated their power in order to achieve aggregate power in the international community commensurate with other eighteenth century nations. It is one thing for a group of states with low power ratios to consolidate their power and quite another for all states to sacrifice their power.' Thus it would be better to propose that a new world order should be based on a co-operative regionalism:

It is power, morality, and sound economic foundation that must form the framework for support of the new world order ... The new international order must provide equality of economic opportunity as a moral factor, for political freedom without social and economic freedom is a mere empty gesture ... [But] promising both a more ethical and a more realistic solution is the formation of regional economic entities ... Cooperative regionalism [will] bring about a better world order through internationally balanced economic and political Regional Blocs.

While sympathetic to Howard's views, Dulles was not yet fully convinced of the practicality of a regional approach. In his 'Draft on Peaceful Change', he expressed fears that a federal system that developed on a less than universal basis could present problems. He explained that if the federal system can thrive only where there is a homogeneous population, 'the federal system may merely develop the world into groups which, while larger than any present nation, will still, as between themselves, be exclusive and resistant to change.' Instead of a stepping-stone to globalism, a regional federal system might thus be nothing more than a superstate that would behave just like a conventional state but on a larger scale.

Yet despite his reservations, Dulles advocated European federalism on numerous occasions as chairman of the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace. One of his criticisms of the Atlantic Charter was that it contained provisions that could be interpreted as restricting the possibility of European union. In his discussion following the critique of the Atlantic Charter, Dulles explained:

We should seek the political reorganisation of continental Europe as a federated commonwealth of some type. As stated above, there must be a large measure of local self-government along ethnic lines. This can be assured through federal principles which in this respect are very flexible. But the reestablishment of some twenty-five wholly independent sovereign states in Europe would be political folly.

Dulles' concerns about Europe were also, as would be expected, reflected in his religious publications. When the 'Statement of Political Propositions', commonly known as 'The Six Pillars of Peace', was published by the Commission in March of 1943, the idea of regional collaboration, particularly European collaboration, was included. In the Comment to Pillar One, which provides for an overall political organisation, it was explained that this would not preclude regional arrangements:

The degree of collaboration can properly be related to the degree of interdependence and thus any universal scheme may contain within its framework provision for regional collaboration. To continue there the uncoordinated independence of some twenty-five sovereign states will assure for the future that, as in the past, war will be a frequently recurrent event.

Although neither the Commission nor Dulles developed the specifics of how other regional arrangements should be set up, in principle they endorsed such organisations. This explains why Dulles soon became involved in efforts to establish regional organisations and developed a firm commitment to the idea of European federation. He advocated this union not purely for the interest of Europe, but for those of the United States as well. He argued:

Twice within the last twenty-five years the United States has become deeply involved in the wars originating between the independent, unconnected sovereignties of Europe. It has been demonstrated that the world has so shrunk that European wars can no longer, as during the last century, be confined to Europe. Therefore, it is not merely of self-interest to Europe, but of vital concern to us, that there be not restored in Europe the conditions which inherently give rise to such wars. From a purely selfish standpoint any American program for peace must include a federated continental Europe. From the standpoint of the peoples concerned, their economic interdependence calls for political mechanisms to assure that their resources and markets be coordinated for maximum peaceful utility.

It is interesting to see here, once again, Dulles' belief that war results from a system that is factually interdependent but yet composed of legally independent, politically unconnected, sovereign states.

In the early 1940s Dulles joined a number of movements specifically aimed at establishing some sort of regional organisation. The most important of these was the Federal Union movement.

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© 2005 Martin Erdmann