Given the present foreign policies, EU can't afford to alienate the US
“When all said and done, Great Britain is an Island, France
the cape of a continent, America another world.” This is the doctrine of Winston Churchill, which he shared with Charles de Gaulle. The US and the Europe are truly two different countries with divergent interests. Let us travel back to the past a bit to understand properly the genesis of these two richest and most powerful land spaces on the earth. These two rich brethren worked in close harmony for much of the twentieth century, mainly to defeat the common enemy viz. Germany in the first two world wars and then the Soviet block during the Cold War. During the World Wars, Britain was still holding on to the pivotal position of a great power with the support of its empire, which was still almost half the world. But cold war was an American thing, and by then the US had amassed enormous wealth and military prowess to replace Britain as a superpower. But after the cold war was won by the US and her West European allies, their economic and political interests began to drift apart. The NATO countries of Europe did not need the American protection any more and this heralded a doom for future friendly relation. On the contrary, new opportunities emerged for NATO when the erstwhile Soviet controlled East European states showed keen interest to join the US bandwagon. It showcased a perfect opportunity for them to cut deep into the Russian periphery, who quite naturally was infuriated by American advancements.
It was observed that after the Cold War NATO’s objective went through a rapid transformation from a defensive security confederacy to a war mongering offensive one, to establish hegemony in the unipolar world by flexing her muscle in the name of war on terror. Although Afghan war was supported by the European friends of the US, the Gulf war showed growing disquiet ness in Old Europe. France and Germany showed open opposition to the Anglo -American intention. Most importantly there was an American pessimism prevailing in most part of Europe, as the ruling parties of Spain and Italy, who supported the invasion, were voted out of power. The euphoria in the streets of Madrid or Rome in the hope of sweeping changes when Obama won the election last November was widely noticed by all. Unpopularity of Bush had reached to such an extent that America’s special friend Britain too, along with France and Germany, had to step in to convince the US against a military strike on Iran. It was their own interest that they wanted to protect, by building a healthy relation with Russia on the eastern front and Muslim world on the south end.
However, when the US tried to lead the unipolar world, it could not do so without the support of European Union. But EU wants a more pluralistic world that consist of several power groups, with themselves as one of the important ones, which will be governed by their own model, which they derived after second World War. Notwithstanding, and everything said and done, Europe cannot afford to alienate the US, but all they can do is to provide proper checks and balances to their high handed foreign policies.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
“When all said and done, Great Britain is an Island, France
the cape of a continent, America another world.” This is the doctrine of Winston Churchill, which he shared with Charles de Gaulle. The US and the Europe are truly two different countries with divergent interests. Let us travel back to the past a bit to understand properly the genesis of these two richest and most powerful land spaces on the earth. These two rich brethren worked in close harmony for much of the twentieth century, mainly to defeat the common enemy viz. Germany in the first two world wars and then the Soviet block during the Cold War. During the World Wars, Britain was still holding on to the pivotal position of a great power with the support of its empire, which was still almost half the world. But cold war was an American thing, and by then the US had amassed enormous wealth and military prowess to replace Britain as a superpower. But after the cold war was won by the US and her West European allies, their economic and political interests began to drift apart. The NATO countries of Europe did not need the American protection any more and this heralded a doom for future friendly relation. On the contrary, new opportunities emerged for NATO when the erstwhile Soviet controlled East European states showed keen interest to join the US bandwagon. It showcased a perfect opportunity for them to cut deep into the Russian periphery, who quite naturally was infuriated by American advancements.It was observed that after the Cold War NATO’s objective went through a rapid transformation from a defensive security confederacy to a war mongering offensive one, to establish hegemony in the unipolar world by flexing her muscle in the name of war on terror. Although Afghan war was supported by the European friends of the US, the Gulf war showed growing disquiet ness in Old Europe. France and Germany showed open opposition to the Anglo -American intention. Most importantly there was an American pessimism prevailing in most part of Europe, as the ruling parties of Spain and Italy, who supported the invasion, were voted out of power. The euphoria in the streets of Madrid or Rome in the hope of sweeping changes when Obama won the election last November was widely noticed by all. Unpopularity of Bush had reached to such an extent that America’s special friend Britain too, along with France and Germany, had to step in to convince the US against a military strike on Iran. It was their own interest that they wanted to protect, by building a healthy relation with Russia on the eastern front and Muslim world on the south end.
However, when the US tried to lead the unipolar world, it could not do so without the support of European Union. But EU wants a more pluralistic world that consist of several power groups, with themselves as one of the important ones, which will be governed by their own model, which they derived after second World War. Notwithstanding, and everything said and done, Europe cannot afford to alienate the US, but all they can do is to provide proper checks and balances to their high handed foreign policies.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
