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02 July 2007
Trans-Atlantic Alliance More Vital than Ever

By David McKeeby
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -– The global roles of the United States and Europe are not the same, but they are inextricably linked, says a senior U.S. diplomat. That connection forms the foundation of a vital partnership.

As the United States and Europe honor this year’s 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan and the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaty’s founding of the European Union, officials and experts agree that the ever-evolving trans-Atlantic alliance remains vital to meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

“There is no closer partnership in the world than that between the United States and Europe,” Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried said in a recent speech in Berlin. “The U.S. and Europe do not constitute a single polity. But we do form a single community of values, interests, and responsibilities.”

However, Simon Serfaty, a senior fellow at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that despite this progress, much more needs to be done to “renew the institutional core of the Euro-Atlantic partnership, meaning the EU and NATO, and to re-cast Europe and its relations with the United States.”

The trans-Atlantic relationship has been strained in recent years by tactical differences on counterterrorism, climate change and Iraq policy, but the White House renewed ties to Europe with President Bush’s visit in 2005, stepped up contacts with leaders of European nations and hosted the April U.S.-EU Summit. Most recently, the president visited a number of European cities in June, in conjunction with his trip to the Group of Eight Summit in Germany.

“President Bush made an intense effort to reach back to Europe,” Fried said in congressional testimony, “and happily European governments reached back, and our relations have greatly recovered.”

The trans-Atlantic alliance, built on the foundation of NATO and the EU, has a proven track record of results including support for diplomatic resolutions on Middle East peace, the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, and questions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, says Kristin Archick of the Congressional Research Service. “Nevertheless, trans-Atlantic tensions have not entirely disappeared and differences remain,” she says.

The future of the trans-Atlantic partnership is tied closely to the EU’s ongoing effort to define itself, says Charles Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Forming a union is always a difficult and fragile enterprise,” Kupchan said recently. “The states that tether themselves together to fashion a new polity are consistently reluctant to do so. And for good reason –- they are required to give up their most prized possession -- their sovereignty. It therefore takes decades for unions to attain a permanent durability.”

One of the most important security questions surrounds the proposed European Defense and Security Policy and its relation to NATO. Because 21 of the alliance’s 26 members are also part of the EU, Washington has supported the concept, provided that it results in a stronger, more capable force within NATO and not, as some have advocated, separate from the alliance. Others have questioned the initiative’s feasibility, says Archick, given European countries’ flat defense budgets.

“Ideally, what we want is a kind of seamlessness between NATO and the European Union,” Fried said. “We need to be able to have a smooth continuum so we don’t worry about who’s doing the job; we worry about getting the job done.”

Once a Cold War institution focused on securing Western Europe, the 26-member NATO alliance has adapted successfully to the rapidly changing global security environment and transformed into what Fried calls, “a trans-Atlantic institution with global missions, global reach, and global partners.”

NATO has 15,000 peacekeepers in Kosovo and 40,000 military personnel in Afghanistan, including troops contributed from 11 nonmember countries. It conducts joint naval patrols in the Mediterranean with additional support from Ukraine, Russia and other nonmember nations. The alliance trains Iraqi military officers to safeguard their country and supports the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

The alliance’s future is being built on these missions, says General Bantz Craddock, NATO’s top military commander testifying before Congress in June, most significantly, in Afghanistan, where despite active engagement by member states militaries -- restrictions placed by governments on their forces and a failure quickly to provide additional troops and equipment show that “level of effort is not matched by political will.”

In contrast, Fried highlights the strong commitment of the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and many newer members to the ideal of collective security enshrined in NATO’s mission in Afghanistan and elsewhere, which is likely to continue as new governments in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom -– as well as the upcoming 2008 elections in the United States -– renew their citizen’s commitment to an enduring trans-Atlantic security partnership.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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