Sally Rohan traces the development of the Western European Union (WEU), the role it played in European integration and the dissolution of most of its key operations at the end of the twentieth century. The author shows how, in the post Second World War security environment, Europe was presented with two key challenges - collective defence against the Soviet threat and integration to foster economic recovery. The collective answer was the Western European Union, an organization that aided the development of the security-focused NATO and the economically focused EU.