The United States and Europe after the Cold War: a new alliance?

469 Pages·1997·1.07 MB·English

by  John William Holmes

The United States and Europe After the
title:
Cold War : A New Alliance?
author: Holmes, John W.
publisher: University of South Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 157003107X
print isbn13: 9781570031076
ebook isbn13: 9780585344317
language: English
Europe--Foreign relations--United States,
Europe--History--1945- , United States--
subject
Foreign relations--Europe, United States--
History--1945-
publication date: 1997
lcc: D1065.U5H65 1997eb
ddc: 327.4073/09/049
Europe--Foreign relations--United States,
Europe--History--1945- , United States--
subject:
Foreign relations--Europe, United States--
History--1945-
Page iii
The United States and Europe after the Cold War
A New Alliance?
John W. Holmes
Page iv
Copyright © 1997 University of South Carolina
Published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the
University of South Carolina Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
01 00 99 98 97 5 4 3 2
The author gratefully acknowledges
the World Peace Foundation for its
generous support of his research.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holmes, John W. (John William), 1935
The United States and Europe after the Cold War: a new alliance?
/ John W. Holmes.
p. cm.
ISBN 157003107X
1. EuropeForeign relationsUnited States. 2. Europe
History1945 3. United StatesForeign relationsEurope.
4. United StatesHistory1945 I. Title.
D1065.U5H65 1997
327.4073'09'049dc20 9550216
Page v
For Jill
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 5
The Old Order Passes
Chapter 2 11
The Transformation of Old Relationships
Chapter 3 18
Western Europe on the Road to Integration
Chapter 4 31
NATO: Triumph and Tragedy
Chapter 5 40
Can European Security Be Based On the OSCE?
Chapter 6 51
The European Union As an Emerging Economic
Superpower
Chapter 7 63
The "European Union": Political Union or Overreach?
Chapter 8 90
U.S. Interests
Chapter 9 107
What Are Our Options?
Chapter 10 124
But What If Europe Breaks Apart?
Chapter 11 135
Can We Forge a New Alliance?
Notes 155
Index 206
Page ix
Preface
This book is the product of two experiences. For more than twenty
years, as an American diplomat, I was directly involved in U.S.
relations with Europe. More recently, I looked at the same issues from
the outside, as senior associate of the World Peace Foundation.
The text essentially reflects the period from the breakup of Soviet
dominion in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War, through
May 1995fifty years after the end of World War II in Europe. I have,
however, taken note of events in the first part of June 1995 that related
significantly to the story of the previous years.
Describing and analyzing this period of profound change, and
attempting to predict and prescribe for the future, has been
complicated by the change in name of two of the main protagonists of
the drama. What had been the European Community was renamed the
European Union on 1 November 1993. I have used both names,
depending on whether the material being discussed relates to the
period before or after its rebaptism. I have followed the same
procedure with the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, which renamed itself the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe at its summit meeting of 56 December 1994.
I wish to express my gratitude to the World Peace Foundation for the
opportunity to reflect and to write on a subject that is central to our
foreign policy, as it has been to my life.
Page 1
Introduction
For more than forty years the Atlantic Alliance simultaneously solved
three problems: how to contain the USSR; how to tie "Germany
organically into the Western Community so as to diminish [the]
danger [of] resurgent German nationalism";
1 and how to give the United States a leading role in Europe.
The end of the Cold War, the withdrawal of Soviet forces, and, finally,
the disintegration of the Soviet Union itself have removed the original
raison d'être for the Atlantic Alliance. Can the old alliance survive,
based on the other two legs of its usefulness?
Probably not. The reunification of Germany reawakened long
dormant, or at least decently concealed, fears of German dominance.
While the Germany of Helmut Kohl is not the Germany of Adolf
Hitler, or of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the size, vigor, and geographical
location of Germany make itas it was in the three-quarters of a century
from 1870 to 1945uncomfortably large for its neighbors.2 But even
when John Foster Dulles discussed this problem nearly forty years
ago, it was European, not Atlantic, integration that was seen as
essential to bind Germany into the West.
The old alliance is also a rusting machine for converting into reality
the American will to lead in Europe. The elements of the old bargain
have changed. Europe accepted the American presence and leadership
because it received, as counterpart, U.S. protection against the threat
from the East; or, as Europeans preferred to see it, the extension of
U.S. deterrence to Western Europe. The threat from the East has
ceased to exist, although with time Russia may both recover its
strength and adopt an aggressive foreign policy.
If the Atlantic Alliance had really created an Atlantic Community, the
story might be different. But the alliance has remained an alliance, a
convenience rather than an emotional reality. On the other hand, the
idea of Europe as a community has flourished, and the