« Du « défi américain » à l’expansion européenne : les relations économiques transatlantiques des années 1950 aux années 1970 » / From the “American Challenge” to European expansion: transatlantic economic relations from the 1950s to the 1970s

Economic histories of post-war transatlantic relations have focused on two predominant narratives: US aid for European reconstruction through the Marshall Plan, and the threat of American business investment in Europe. But little research has linked these two elements. Moreover, existing scholarship has neglected the expansion of European companies across the Atlantic. This article remedies these two gaps in the literature by examining transatlantic relations through the perspective of business. In particular, the case of the Belgian grocer Delhaize, its participation in US technical assistance programs in the 1950s, the challenges it faced in the 1960s, and its expansion into US markets in the 1970s offers a new dimension to the history of twentieth-century transatlantic relations and the history of globalization.