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Winston Churchill's call in 1945 for a "United States of Europe," a federation of European states to promote harmonious relations between nations, economic cooperation, and a sense of European identity, has caused him to be regarded as the father of European unity. While in opposition, Churchill argued forcefully at home and abroad that a united Europe was the best means to heal residual hatred from the Second World War. Yet Churchill's rhetoric is sometimes difficult to reconcile with his ambivalence regarding Britain's role in his proposed federation, particularly after he returned to power in October 1951.

This paper explores several questions: What did mean by a United States of Europe? What was to be Britain's role in a unified Europe? How did Churchill's commitment to European unity fit with his deep commitment to preserving Britain's status as a global power? How did Churchill's political ambitions affect his European unification initiative? How did Churchill's beliefs and actions change upon regaining office? Churchill coined the term "United States of Europe" in a Saturday Evening Post article in February 1930. He believed that "obsolete hatreds" could be appeased by the American federalist model, but that Britain would not belong. "We have our own dreams. We are with Europe but not of it. We are linked but not compromised."
The threat of Nazi Germany caused him to put the issue away until he proposed an Anglo-French Union as France was falling to the Germans in June 1940. In December of that year he spoke of a postwar Europe of five Great Powers (United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Prussia) and four confederations operating in a Council of Europe to include a "supreme judiciary and a Supreme Economic Council to settle currency questions." Privately he was still determined to maintain close links with the United States and the British Commonwealth, and to maintain Britain as a world power in its own right.
In 1942, expressing concern about "Russian barbarism" threatening Europe's revival, he focused less on the primacy of the English speaking world. "We will have to work with the Americans," he wrote, "but Europe is our prime care." In January 1943 he issued a paper calling for "an instrument of European government formed by units including the great European powers and blocs made up of smaller states." This paper was attacked by the Foreign Office for vagueness.
In the postwar years, his advocacy of European unification served as a forum

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