The geo-political interests of Europe and America have been drawing apart, and may well continue to do so. Halting this progressive alienation will require major changes in outlook and policy on both sides of the Atlantic. The US will have to stop defining its transatlantic interests in terms of its hegemonic mindset, and Europe will have to take fuller charge of its own region. [A] shared enemy did underpin America’s alliance with parts of Europe over much of the 20th century. That enemy, however, was also European — first Germany, then Russia. In effect, the shared transatlantic geopolitical interest was between the US and one part of Europe against another. With the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the transatlantic alliance confronted new realities. The interests of both the EU and the US were expansively redefined. With no massive Soviet army in the middle of Germany, Europe was no longer firmly divided into western and eastern hemispheres. Mitteleuropa revived and Germany reunified. Western Europe evolved from a “Community” to a “Union”, and its states became less firmly bound to American protection. The Soviet demise encouraged US political elites to construct a “unipolar” view of America’s global position and interest.Slowly, however, Europe has seemed to grow more cohesive in its opposition to American unipolar policies and pretensions. [The] reasons for Europe’s defection are eminently geopolitical. To Europe’s east lies Russia, to its south the Muslim world. Europe needs good relations with both in order to penetrate growing markets, tap sources for raw materials and energy, and ensure its own domestic stability, whereas many Europeans believe that US policies alienate these regions. In these circumstances, the transatlantic alliance survives less from genuinely shared interests than from inertia. Excerpted from a comment by David Calleo in ‘The Guardian’
