The Vital Partnership: Power and Order : America and Europe Beyond IraqThe Vital Partnership is a political, historical, and intellectual assessment of the evolution of transatlantic relations. This partnership, warns Simon Serfaty, is clearly at a crossroads, and even at risk. The problem, he argues, is neither personal nor bilateral or even circumstantial--not even over George W. Bush, France, or Iraq. Instead, the crisis is structural, the result of four interconnected facts. One is the preponderance of American power, which the end of the Cold war left without any immediate competitor. Another fact is the integration of Europe as a European Union whose non-military capabilities and institutional influence now enable it to resist the sway of that power. A third fact is the impact of globalization, meaning the inability for any country, including the most powerful among them, to remain indifferent to developments elsewhere. And the fourth fact is the emergence of a new form of war-like terror, unveiled most dramatically on September 11, 2001. Under such conditions, concludes Serfaty, the defining transatlantic issue is not over power and weakness, but over power and order. And Serfaty calls on the Bush administration to complete the postwar strategy pursued by President Truman during his own second term in office, when the institutional order organized around American power identified the like-minded states of Europe as its allies of choice for the management of the new security normalcy that threatened to engulf the West during the Cold War. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
achieve action administration alliance allies already American American power Atlantic become better Books Britain Bush cause century challenge changed close Cold Cold War commitment concerns consequences countries crisis danger debate decade decisions defeated defense defined earlier early East economic Empire especially Europe Europe's European expected faced fact feared final followed force Foreign Policy France French future George Germany global goal half helped Henry Kissinger idea imperial influence institutions interests Iraq issue Italy John lack later leaders leadership less limited lived longer matter meaning military nation NATO needed past peace political postwar preponderance present President question Quoted region relations relative remain response rise risk role sense September 11 shared short Soviet stand strategy threat tion transatlantic transformation Truman Union United wage wars Washington York
References to this book
NATO's New Mission: Projecting Stability in a Post-Cold War World Rebecca R. Moore No preview available - 2007 |