June 1, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Brilliant article by Robert Kagan
Brilliant article by Robert Kagan (Via Mindles:
Thus we arrive at what may be the most important reason for the divergence in views between Europe and the United States. America's power, and its willingness to exercise that power - unilaterally if necessary - represents a threat to Europe's new sense of mission. Perhaps the greatest threat. American policymakers find it hard to believe, but leading officials and politicians in Europe worry more about how the United States might handle or mishandle the problem of Iraq - by undertaking unilateral and extralegal military action - than they worry about Iraq itself and Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. And while it is true that they fear such action might destabilize the Middle East and lead to the unnecessary loss of life, there is a deeper concern.7 Such American action represents an assault on the essence of "postmodern" Europe. It is an assault on Europe's new ideals, a denial of their universal validity, much as the monarchies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe were an assault on American republican ideals. Americans ought to be the first to understand that a threat to one's beliefs can be as frightening as a threat to one's physical security.
I've wondered over the last few months whether Europeans really, genuinely don't get it that their peace is purchased by our willingness to act militarily. The European miracle of integration, after all, was made possible first by our destruction of Germany, and then by the military guarantees that made intra-European belligerence not only unnecessary, but also impossible. Oh, they did a fine thing, I'm sure, weaving all those disparate states together; I might not like the hyper-statist form of the EU, but I applaud the idea. Nonetheless, it wouldn't have succeeded without our military guarantees, and not just because they'd have to hold their meetings in Russian.
But Kagan makes the opposite point as well, which is that we, for many years, dreamed of a peaceful isolationism that many of us, including me, still look back upon wistfully. It wouldn't particularly bother me if the situations were reversed, and we had to retreat within our borders and look inward. Or at least, I don't think it would. If we were not threatened by Iraq et al. I think I could be quite content to let the Europeans handle it whatever way they like. Oh, I'm a champion of liberty to all the corners of the earth, but there's sufficient ambiguity in pursuing it for foreign nations that I'd be content to let Sweden and Italy handle the job. So it's not too hard to understand that the Europeans have built their own ideology out of powerlessness; nor is it necessary to ridicule it in order to point out its insufficiency. Multilateralism does have its charms.
But for now, I guess, I'll stick with our way.
Posted by Jane Galt at June 1, 2002 6:32 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links"); ?>