Stephen Martin Walt ? The ties that fray. Why Europe and America are drifting apart

Résumé du document

This text has been written by Stephen Martin Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of government. According to him the security community between the United States and Europe comes to an end, in spite of the misleading good health of the NATO. The Atlantic community was mainly based on America's willingness to protect its European ally from the USSR. Throughout the 20th century America intervened abroad only when other great powers were trying to establish their hegemony in Europe or in Asia. The disappearance of the USSR entailed the end of the common interest between Europe and the United States.

Extraits

[...] * Without knowing how the events would evolve in the former Soviet Union it would have been foolish to dissolve the NATO. *Finally the NATO is heavily institutionalized and all its bureaucracy will not surrender and admit its dissolution too easily. For Stephen Walt the NATO is bound to disappear with the passage of time. Like Oscar Wild's Dorian Gray, the NATO may seem to be healthier whith the age but its efficiency will keep on decreasing. The US and Europe have to anticipate that and start a gradual process of disengagement. [...]

[...] The declining importance of the economic ties between Europe and United States also weakens the transatlantic relations. Asia is now the main target of United States trade while regionalization (european intgration, North american free trade agreement ) increases te gap too. The United States will devote more energy to Asia, which they see as the most likely future challenger to their hegemony. With its development, the European Union will become a more powerful rival of the US, in the economic field as well as in the political one. [...]

[...] Stephen Martin Walt The ties that fray. Why Europe and America are drifting apart This text has been written by Stephen Martin Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy school of government. According to him the security community between the United States and Europe comes to an end, in spite of the misleading good health of the NATO. Three main reasons explain why transatlantic security cooperation belongs to the past : the extinction of the Soviet threat, the decreasing economic stake of America in Europe and finally the disappearance of european and american elites committed to the idea of an Atlantic community. [...]

[...] Moreover the ethnic and cultural ties of americans with Europe are on the decline (immigrants from Asia and Latine America, assimilation, intermarriage and so the affinities with the old country. Besides there is a shift in the US population, away from the Atlantic : that means a reorientation of their policy towards other areas. Nonetheless the most important thing is he generational change : people who have known the two world wars, the cold wars will eventually die and with them will vanish the commitment for the transatlantic partnership. [...]