The Imbalance of Power: On the Prospects for the Effective American - European Relations

For more than 50 years, the transatlantic partnership between the United States and Europe has been the linchpin of this country's foreign policy. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) played a central role in containing Soviet power and winning the Cold War, and our commitment to Europe helped nurture the continent's economic recovery and political integration after World War II. Transatlantic security cooperation did not end when the Cold War was over: NATO gradually adapted to meet the security challenges of a new era by shifting its focus toward peacekeeping and nation-building, and successfully intervening to end brutal ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo. NATO also expanded to incorporate new democracies in Central Europe; its total membership will reach 26 in 2004.

Yet despite this remarkable record of success, 2003 also marked the lowest point in transatlantic relations since World War II. Although NATO has faced serious strains in every decade — over the Suez Crisis in 1956, Vietnam in the 1960s, the energy crises in the 1970s, and the Euromissiles controversy in the 1980s — the level of acrimony in the past year was unprecedented. Relations between key European allies and the United States had already been on delicate ground for several years— fueled largely by European concerns about American "unilateralism" — but the crucial event was the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. As the diplomatic campaign for war proceeded, key European states openly opposed the use of force and even actively colluded to prevent the United States from obtaining a UN Security Council resolution authorizing war — an unprecedented breach in the alliance. American leaders responded by playing a "divide-and-conquer" strategy that challenged the core idea of European unity, and threatened to "punish" allies who had opposed the war.

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