DISADVANTAGE/LEADERSHIP BAD

EUROPE AND THE USA WILL CONTINUE AS CLOSE PARTNERS

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS WILL NEVER BE ENEMIES

Samuel Huntington, chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, January 28, 2001 BANGKOK POST HEADLINE: GLOBAL VIEWPOINT: Another new world order in the making//VT2002acsln

HUNTINGTON: That is right. That is why, even as the Europeans develop an autonomous military capability, they will remain, even with a strengthened German core, culturally in tune with the Americans and thus not likely to become all-out adversaries in the future, no matter what happens to Nato.

AMERICAN-EUROPEAN RELATIONSHIP WILL HAVE TENSIONS BUT WILL NOT BREAK DOWN

Samuel Huntington, chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, January 28, 2001 BANGKOK POST HEADLINE: GLOBAL VIEWPOINT: Another new world order in the making//VT2002acsln

HUNTINGTON: Within Europe we can predict that France will almost always be anti-US while the UK will usually be pro-US. Germany is the big question. During the Cold War and its immediate aftermath Germany was staunchly pro-US, but that may well not continue as the EU now has its own currency and is making considerable efforts to build its own armed forces. And Europe is in line with China and Russia against the idea of ballistic missile defence. From this perspective, it is certainly unrealistic to think the North Atlantic Alliance is going to remain just as it was during the Cold War. Nevertheless, Americans and Europeans, on a civilisational basis, have much in common that will contain geopolitical rivalry from getting out of hand.

EUROPE AND THE USA ARE WORKING MORE CLOSELY TO SOLVE MAJOR PROBLEMS NOW THAN EVER

ANTONY J. BLINKEN, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, May, 2001 / June, 2001 Foreign Affairs SECTION: ESSAYS; Pg. 35 HEADLINE: The False Crisis Over the Atlantic //VT2002acsln

Americans come to this view from the lessons of the twentieth century and the imperatives of the twenty-first. When Europe was divided, its people subjugated, and its nations at war, the United States also paid a price. Today, new problems defy borders: ethnic, racial, and religious conflict; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; networks of terror, crime, and drug trafficking; environmental degradation; and the spread of infectious disease. Hence the solutions are likely to be cheaper, safer, and more effective if pursued with allies rather than alone.

That is why Europe and the United States are in fact working more closely together, in ever-broader areas. Together, in the 1990s, they gave NATO new missions, members, and partners. They helped new democracies in central Europe and the Baltics join the transatlantic mainstream and turned the killing fields of the former Yugoslavia into a proving ground for new structures of cooperation: the Partnership for Peace, the NATO-Russia Founding Act, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and of course, the EU.

The last is perhaps the most promising development in the transatlantic partnership. In less than a decade, the EU has grown much further and faster than was once predicted, turning a free-trade club for western European democracies into a multifaceted economic, political, and security alliance that is expanding its membership.

USA AND EUROPE ARE ON A COURSE FOR CONVERGENCE OF INTERESTS AND VALUES

WHAT IS STRIKING, then, is the extent to which the United States and Europe are converging with respect to both values and interests. The "crisis" in U.S.-European relations is largely a myth manufactured by elites -- politicians, intellectuals, and the media -- whose views clash with those of the people they purport to represent. The motives behind this mischief may include a desire to diminish America's global influence, to use the United States as a scapegoat for domestic political gain, or to sell newspapers. Or it may reflect the fact that, for all its strength, the transatlantic relationship is in a period of transition. The end of the Cold War buried America and Europe's existential interdependence. Into the vacuum surged two largely complementary but sometimes conflicting phenomena: American "hyperpower" and a new European identity forged by economic, political, and security integration. As a result, American and European elites focus less on common values and interests and more on their differences.

But this much is true: in the sharing of ideals and the search for partners in a more complex world, Europeans and Americans still look to each other before they look to anyone else. Their manifest and multiple affinities far outweigh their differences. Their partnership benefits them both. Now the task is to make that partnership even more effective for the future. As during its first 50 years, a continued transatlantic alliance would be good for the United States, good for Europe -- and good for the world.

USA AND EUROPE ARE NOT GROWING FURTHER APART

Together, the "values gap" and the "strategic split" form the core of a newly fashionable argument advanced by European elites -- and reflected by their American counterparts -- that the United States and Europe are growing apart. But a closer look shows that, far from diverging, the United States and Europe are converging culturally, economically, and with some effort, strategically. This false crisis makes it more difficult to deal with those differences that do exist and reap the potential of a partnership that can benefit Americans and Europeans far into the future.