Triple Crown 2010: Can the Transatlantic Alliance be Strategic?

Preface

Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Future of Diplomacy Project Senior Fellow and Atlantic Council Board Director Marc Grossman encourages the Obama Administration to view the bureaucratic challenge of managing the upcoming NATO, U.S.-EU and OSCE summits as an opportunity to create a more coherent, strategic transatlantic relationship that maximizes the capabilities of all three organizations.

“While the world is certainly a different, more complicated place than it was in 1999, the Obama Administration might also find it useful to design a strategy that creates a coherent approach toward the President’s involvement in the NATO, U.S.-EU, and OSCE summits.”

In his brief, Grossman reflects on how in 1999 the Clinton Administration developed a ‘Triple Crown’ strategy for U.S. policy towards Europe through NATO, the U.S.-EU relationship, and the OSCE and suggests that the Obama Administration might consider a similar approach for Europe today.

Grossman outlines the changes that have taken place within NATO, the EU, and the OSCE since 1999 and proposes a coherent strategy for U.S. engagement with Europe through all three institutions. Grossman encourages NATO to address new threats such as energy and homeland security, urges Europe to emerge as a strategic actor equivalent to its economic clout, and calls on the United States to respond to Russian President Medvedev’s calls for a new European security treaty with a plan to modernize and strengthen the OSCE.

This brief is part of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Task Force, which seeks to provide thought leadership on a transatlantic strategy for Central Asia.