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European Affairs
Letter from the Editor
Rebuilding Atlantic Relations
By Reginald Dale
The war in Iraq has exposed deep-lying political divisions across the Atlantic and among European governments. Outspoken opposition to the U.S.-led military intervention from much of the European general public and some governments has demonstrated the extent of anti-American feeling, or at least dislike of the Bush administration, in Europe. At the same time, support for the U.S. position expressed by 18 governments has revealed the depth of the split inside Europe on issues of war and peace and the desirability of a strong partnership with the United States.
The immediate damage that has been done is obvious: U.S. relations with Germany are at their lowest ebb since World War II and the always prickly U.S-French relationship is once again badly frayed. The European Union's attempts to establish a common foreign and security policy (CFSP) have suffered a devastating blow, and, in many eyes, the credibility of the United Nations, NATO and the European Union have all been severely compromised.
But the divisions are not just over Iraq. Europeans are at issue over the contents of a European constitution that is currently under negotiation, and the shape of the new institutions that will be needed when Union is enlarged from 15 to 25 members next year. Many existing EU members are nervous that the admission of ten new members, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, will upset the Union's political balance. Such nervousness partly explains French efforts to revive the Franco-German relationship as a means of exercising greater control in the enlarged Union.
There is no agreement, however, on the longer-term implications of these developments. Those who favor a CFSP argue the Iraq crisis shows that the Union must make greater efforts to speak with a single voice if it is to have any influence in the world. Skeptics, including many in the United States, believe that Iraq has demonstrated that a CFSP will not be possible for the foreseeable future, at least where important geostrategic issues and relations with the United States are concerned.
In this issue, we publish a special report on The Rift in Transatlantic Relations, in which most authors argue that it is still possible, and desirable, to rebuild cooperation between the United States and Europe. Daniel S. Hamilton, Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations in Washington, writes that, rather than drifting apart, the two sides of the Atlantic are in fact colliding, and that the United States and Europe must work together to form a new, intensified global partnership to confront the challenges of the 21st century.
George Robertson, Secretary General of NATO, expresses the conviction that the Alliance is strong enough to survive the Iraq crisis, while Ronald D. Asmus of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations writes that Iraq is not the only problem facing the Alliance and that recent months have revealed deeper differences. It is possible to put the pieces back together, but it will not be easy, he concludes.
Jan Dirk Blaauw, President of the WEU Assembly, argues that the first priority is for Europeans to overcome their differences and reach a consensus about the role of the Union in international crises: only then can Europe be a viable partner for the United States. European Affairs Brussels Correspondent Philippe Lemaître suggests that an "advance guard" of countries, such as France, Germany and Belgium, should lead the way toward closer EU political and defense cooperation.
Other articles look at the implications of the negotiations on the European constitution; the difficulties that many EU countries face in introducing the economic reforms they pledged to enact three years ago in Lisbon; and the extensive fallout from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's off-the-cuff reference to France and Germany as "Old Europe." In our Opinion section, we present two conflicting views on whether the United States should take legal action against the European Union in the WTO over European reluctance to accept genetically modified foods.
This issue also contains a new front section, European Perspectives, in which European contributors offer their own interpretations of current events in a somewhat briefer format. Our inaugural contributors are Frits Bolkestein, European Commissioner for the Internal Market; Fraser Cameron, Director of Studies and the European Policy Centre in Brussels; and Mia Doornaert, Diplomatic Editor of the Belgian newspaper De Standaard. We would warmly welcome reactions from readers on any of the topics raised in this issue, and on the future of Transatlantic relations in general.