(Host) Commentator Olin Robison reflects on Europe and the Bush administration.
(Robison) The relationship between the United States and Europe is as difficult and problematic right now as at any point since World War II. President Bush has been at the United Nations in New York City this week seeking the broadest possible international support for U.S. policy in Iraq. The appeal is to the so-called community of nations, but the real agenda is with Europe.
Newspaper headlines and stories the day after the President addressed the General Assembly did not give him rave reviews. The occasion was described as “restrained” and “chilly.” The New York Times lead article was headlined, “An Audience Unmoved,” and the article talked about “an icy chamber.”
Now, let’s be honest here. European criticism of the U.S. is not new. However “icy” the chamber was, and however arch the French President, Mr. Chirac, may be, it is indeed the case that European leaders have generally been critical of the United States for most of the last 50 years. It has long seemed to me that Europe has been chronically unhappy with the U.S., either for doing too much of this or too little of that.
But the breach is more serious now. Much more serious. In my opinion, this didn’t have to happen, at least not to this degree. I also believe that the damage this time is considerable and probably lasting.
There are, first and foremost, serious policy differences where Iraq is concerned. Beyond all that, however, there has recently been a sustained indiscriminate and provocative use of language on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially from Washington. The rhetoric coming out of Washington both before and after the invasion of Iraq has served, in almost every instance, to inflame rather than soothe.
The president himself is guilty on this one. His good ol’ boy, Texas tough talk plays well at home but is all too often offensive to many Europeans. Some of it is an issue of style. But it is also a matter of substance.
First prize here, however, does not go to President Bush. The designated provocateur-in-chief has clearly been Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Last January, well before the start of the Iraq war, Secretary Rumsfeld, in a question and answer session, referred to Germany and France as “Old Europe” and then labeled NATO’s recently added East European members as the “New Europe.” The reactions in Europe were swift and harsh, and, frankly, they remain so.
All of this and more comes at a time when the definition and even the concept of Europe is constantly changing. The European Union, currently 15 nations, will soon be 27. A constitutional “convention” is deliberating. European economies are under serious strain. And so, not surprisingly, Europe is inwardly focused.
The exceptionally perceptive French commentator Dominique Mo si said recently that Europe is trying to decide whether it wishes to follow the vision of French President Chirac, which would have Europe be the great counter force to American power or, said Mr. Mo si, to choose an easier option: that Europe should just become a big Switzerland.
Do stay tuned and pay attention across the Atlantic. Even as Europe continues very much to be a work in progress, so is the trans-Atlantic relationship, and it would be a mistake to think that continued progress is inevitable.
This is Olin Robison.
Olin Robison is preisdent of the Salzburg Seminar, located in Middlebury, Vermont and Salzburg, Austria.