Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

4/8/09

Spero News: US-European relations in 2009 - by Jeremy Black

For the complete report from Spero News click on this link

US-European relations in 2009 - by Jeremy Black

Looking at developments in Europe and the U.S.-European relationship today, like all things in history, in part we have been here before but in part what we are seeing is new. The current strains and issues in U.S.-European relations in some respects are resonant of the situation in the late 1960s-early 1970s, when tensions in those relations were far worse than they are now.

The basis in terms of dealing with Europe is you have informed public's who are not inherently antithetical to American values, who are not run by authoritarian states, who are heavily influenced culturally by the U.S. In fact, America's influence culturally is very strong across Europe. Given that that is the context, the possibility for America to exert either soft or hard power in Europe is greater than the possibility to do so in most other parts of the world. The opportunity is there. Most of the faults are on the European side, but Europe is a large part of the world, with more than 400 million people and several of the top-10 economies. To write it off because one is worried about whether these states are sound is understandable as an emotional response, but it's not practical in a competitive world.

No comments: