One Hand Clapping: Systemic Change and U.S. Policy Toward Europe After the ColdWar

摘要

U.S. policy towards Europe remains a prisoner of the Cold War. Washington needsto revise fundamentally its perspective and approach to Europe to take into account basic changes in the international system, to address enduring and evolving U.S. national interests, and to redefine America's leadership role in the world. Systemic changes coinciding with the end of the Cold War include: the end of polarity, of ideological conflict and of globalism; the decreasing salience of geopolitics and of military alliances; the emergence of regionalization; and the increasing importance of geoeconomics. U.S. interests in Europe have been dramatically transformed. Disjunctures in capabilities, in probability and in intentions undermine the proposition that Washington really needs to worry about the emergence of a hegemonic power on the Eurasian land mass. While U.S. security equities in Europe are now relatively low, owing to the success of Washington's postwar policies, America's economic stakes there have never been higher , in part for the same reasons. Overarching U.S. goals can now best be served by the expansion and integration of the European Union, giving it primacy over NATO as the framework for America's partnership with Europe.