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A study of European co-operation and transatlantic relations in the 1950s as well as on the changes these relations underwent during the early postwar period.The European Productivity Agency (EPA) was created in 1953 as a semi-autonomous organization within the framework of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and wound up eight years later, in 1961, when the United States and Canada joined the OEEC countries and founded the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was initially designed as a means to "Americanize" Western Europe through the transfer of American techniques, know-how and ideas to the Old Continent, but, as Boel demonstrates, it increasingly became a framework within which the member countries sought "European" solutions to their problems. The EPA was the product of American ideas, actions and money, and embodied the merger of two of the United States' main foreign policy goals after World War II, namely increasing productivity and furthering integration among the countries of Western Europe. The agency was conceived as a major instrument for the "politics of productivity" which would enable Western European societies to overcome their social and political problems resulting from scarcity, particularly in countries such as France and Italy with strong communist parties. During its short-lived existence the EPA acted as an operational arm of the OEEC, accounting on average for over 40 percent of the overall OEEC expenditures. It implemented a vast array of activities aimed at improving productivity in industry, commerce, agriculture and distribution. Among its endeavours were efforts to develop management education, improve labor-management relations, and assist underdeveloped areas in the member countries. Many of its projects met with contrasted reactions and thus highlighted conflicts between trade unions and employers, differences amongst the OEEC countries as well as transatlantic squabbles.Bent Boel, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Aalborg

A study of European co-operation and transatlantic relations in the 1950s as well as on the changes these relations underwent during the early postwar period.


The European Productivity Agency (EPA) was created in 1953 as a semi-autonomous organization within the framework of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and wound up eight years later, in 1961, when the United States and Canada joined the OEEC countries and founded the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was initially designed as a means to "Americanize" Western Europe through the transfer of American techniques, know-how and ideas to the Old Continent, but, as Boel demonstrates, it increasingly became a framework within which the member countries sought "European" solutions to their problems.


The EPA was the product of American ideas, actions and money, and embodied the merger of two of the United States' main foreign policy goals after World War II, namely increasing productivity and furthering integration among the countries of Western Europe. The agency was conceived as a major instrument for the "politics of productivity" which would enable Western European societies to overcome their social and political problems resulting from scarcity, particularly in countries such as France and Italy with strong communist parties. During its short-lived existence the EPA acted as an operational arm of the OEEC, accounting on average for over 40 percent of the overall OEEC expenditures. It implemented a vast array of activities aimed at improving productivity in industry, commerce, agriculture and distribution. Among its endeavours were efforts to develop management education, improve labor-management relations, and assist underdeveloped areas in the member countries. Many of its projects met with contrasted reactions and thus highlighted conflicts between trade unions and employers, differences amongst the OEEC countries as well as transatlantic squabbles.

Abstract
This article offers the first scholarly account of the International Sakharov Hearings, which were prompted by the so-called Moscow Appeal (1974) and took place in Copenhagen (1975), Rome (1977), Washington, DC (1979), Lisbon (1983), and London (1985). The article provides a detailed examination of each hearing, from the amateurish and politically murky origins in Copenhagen to the more mainstream and quite successful event in London. The article also attempts an overall assessment of the hearings as an original, important case of an international citizens' tribunal resulting from transnational human rights activism pursued in Andrei Sakharov's name in the context of the Helsinki process. It raises questions about the roles played by various individuals, networks, and agencies, as well as the possible impact of the hearings, both domestically and internationally.

Résumé En étudiant les contacts entre Français et dissidents de l'Est pendant les années 1968-1980, l'auteur pose la question de savoir dans quelle mesure il est possible d'identifier un « impact Mai-68 » compte tenu de la solidarité proclamée en 1968 par certains contestataires occidentaux avec le « Printemps de Prague », de la sympathie française pour l'opposition dans les pays de l'Est et du rôle important joué par ces contacts au cours des années 1980 (en particulier la « détente par le bas » prônée par les mouvements pacifistes non-alignés de l'Est et de l'Ouest). Cette solidarité avec les dissidents de l'Est pendant les années 1970 est-elle due à « l'effet Soljénitsyne » ou remonte-t-elle à Mai-68 ? En vue d'ébaucher une réponse à ces questions, le texte tente d'identifier les contacts entre Français et dissidents de l'Est en examinant plusieurs catégories d'acteurs. Les contacts avec les oppositionnels de l'Est pendant les années 1980 mobilisèrent un nombre bien plus important de personnes que pendant la décennie précédente, et l'on ne peut exclure que pour certains d'entre eux un passé soixante-huitard ait joué un rôle par rapport à leur engagement.

A study of European co-operation and transatlantic relations in the 1950s as well as on the changes these relations underwent during the early postwar period. The European Productivity Agency (EPA) was created in 1953 as a semi-autonomous organization within the framework of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and wound up eight years later, in 1961, when the United States and Canada joined the OEEC countries and founded the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was initially designed as a means to "Americanize" Western Europe through the transfer of American techniques, know-how and ideas to the Old Continent, but, as Boel demonstrates, it increasingly became a framework within which the member countries sought "European" solutions to their problems. The EPA was the product of American ideas, actions and money, and embodied the merger of two of the United States' main foreign policy goals after World War II, namely increasing productivity and furthering integration among the countries of Western Europe. The agency was conceived as a major instrument for the "politics of productivity" which would enable Western European societies to overcome their social and political problems resulting from scarcity, particularly in countries such as France and Italy with strong communist parties. During its short-lived existence the EPA acted as an operational arm of the OEEC, accounting on average for over 40 percent of the overall OEEC expenditures. It implemented a vast array of activities aimed at improving productivity in industry, commerce, agriculture and distribution. Among its endeavours were efforts to develop management education, improve labor-management relations, and assist underdeveloped areas in the member countries. Many of its projects met with contrasted reactions and thus highlighted conflicts between trade unions and employers, differences amongst the OEEC countries as well as transatlantic squabbles. Bent Boel, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Aalborg.