This week marks a campus-wide celebration of the European Union for International Week. While the European Union has been heralded as a unifying entity known for keeping harmonious relations between European states for the last half-century, it has been dogged with weaknesses ranging from the continued delay of Turkey’s entrance and the constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
With the rise of resurgent Russia, the threats of terrorism, Iranian missiles and a volatile Middle East, it is clear the European Union does not have the teeth to tackle these challenges with no real military force, no coherent strategy and other domestic problems member that states face.
On the other side of the world, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been the victim of divisive Japanese politics, thus forcing Japanese foreign policy to take a break and compelling whoever succeeds the Prime minister to pay attention to domestic concerns. This focus calls for its chief patron, the United States, to take the leading role once again to provide Japan and East Asia security so they are able to answer to the growing Russian, North Korean and Chinese threats to the region.
Then there is the Middle East, still boiling hot from the Pakistani political crisis, Iran’s nuclear missiles, Israel asserting itself once again and rich Arab states considering the acquisition of nuclear weapons. It may not show itself in the newspapers, but if there is one thing to learn about foreign policy, it is that 10 percent of foreign policy substance is what you see in newspapers, and 90 percent is what you don’t.
Hence, lying beneath that 10 percent is a growing shift of states that have been traditionally solid U.S. allies in the region are once again looking to the United States to play that role of as an emergency service. Even though the burdens of our international role are heavier, we are tasked in repositioning ourselves in a worldwide scheme to answer to the jitters and anxieties of our allies.
Many observers and journalists, both foreign and American, I think Europe is becoming less anti-American now that the most unpopular American president is on his way out. Not so fast. Russia has been threatening Europe with talk of missiles and choking European energy supplies. In addition, the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner recently said that France would support EU sanctions against Iran, and that preparation for a possible war with Iran is a must. France’s actions sound like suicide, and this is an apparent indicator that help is needed.
And that “help” means restored relations with the United States and Europe must be characterized with strength. Which is why last week, an advertisement from the head of the EU Delegation to the United States on Foreign Policy magazine names Europe, rather than Asia, as America’s most important economic regional focus for the next 20 years.
True, the Iraq war has driven a wedge between the relationships of traditional U.S. allies and those in Washington, D.C.. People around the world would like to see the United States withdrawal from Iraq sooner rather than later, and we must not lot our short-term thinking cloud our focus from the growing international challenges elsewhere. The reality is that there is a paradox, because the world demands too much of America while it wants America to do less.
Jeff Genota is a junior political science major.
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