Cooperation and Community in Europe: What the Marshall Plan Proposed, NATO Disposed

In this age of humanitarian intervention and hopeful goals of European integration, the Marshall Plan is often held out as a historical beacon and symbol of international activism and engagement. This view fails to note that while the U.S. state invested funds and directly intervened in the political economies of European states and societies, it did so through supranational structures that were self-consciously designed to be non-political and temporary. The avoidance of thick political institutions was made possible by a heavy emphasis on private sector involvement in aid flows and management. The Marshall Plan itself, in this constrained form, could only as a result put integration on the agenda. The decisive forces shaping the long-term legacy of the Marshall Plan, that is, the emergence of the European Community—came from the realm of security, bearing on the formation of NATO.