Introduction

Abstract

Challenge and Response presents the Spanish administration’s reactions to the various forms in which economic cooperation took place in Western Europe during the early years following World War II. Despite the fact that, until the late 1950s, Spain was excluded from the most important initiatives for intra-European and Atlantic cooperation as a consequence of the origins and non-democratic nature of the Franco regime, the Spanish authorities were well aware of the negative consequences which resulted from increased isolation. Departing from the simplest concept of interdependence, the hypothesis underlying this book is that the movement toward closer economic cooperation by Western European states imposed costs on the Spanish economy and obliged the Spanish administration, within its limited capacity as an outsider, to articulate a policy response.¹ It is the task of this work to investigate not only the Spanish authorities’ assessment of those developments which had a vital bearing on the future shape of Europe but how the most peripheral country of all responded to the challenge.