Summer 2003
Postwar Europe
It’s still far too early to know what the „pragmatic“ French and German acceptance of an initial United States-United Kingdom occupation in Iraq portends in transatlantic relations. President Jacques Chirac is drawing a line under his pre-war confrontation with Washington in saying, “War is one thing, peacetime management is another.” Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is promising, “We are ready for pragmatic solutions.” Both are now signaling willingness to participate in Iraqi reconstruction even if the United Nations is not granted the leading role there
The New World Order 
Article by Karl Kaiser
The Iraq war closed not only the half-century bipolar era, but also the 3 1/2-century Westphalian nation-state system. Today national sovereignty has been eroded, both by the interdependence of globalization and the availability of WMD to non-state rogue actors. The 21st century will be characterized by the tension between interdependence on the one hand and America’s unprecedented dominance and capacity for unilateral action on the other.
Security Challenges in Transatlantic Relations
Article by Charles Grant
How did transatlantic relations get so bad? Four quarrels erupted: over terrorism, the Israel-Palestine impasse, the Iraq war, and the military gap. To repair relations, the US should restrain its unilateralism, treat old allies civilly, rebuild a broad international coalition to construct postwar Iraq, and try to appear even-handed in the Mideast. Europe should bolster its military assets, take WMD threats seriously, make its foreign policy decision-making more coherent, and harness trade and aid policies to serve political objectives.
How Shall We Answer Robert Kagan?
Article by Robert Cooper
Kagan discovered one fundamental truth in attributing differences between the US and Europe to America’s overwhelming military might and Europe’s lack of it. There are, of course, other differences too. But to avoid the distortions in transatlantic relations that follow from the power imbalance, Europe should pool its not inconsiderable defense spending to get better output—and develop the political will to shape a common foreign policy and use this military instrument.
Beavers and Bulls in China Shops
Article by Hans-Peter Schwarz
In the post-World War II world, to advance its interests, Germany carefully built vital networks in the EU, relations with Central European neighbors, NATO, and the UN. These networks were foolishly squandered when Chancellor Schröder ran for reelection last fall on an anti-war appeal that was seen in Washington as anti-American. It must now be the job of diplomatic beavers to repair the damage wrought by political bulls in china shops.
Europe Must Diversify Its Energy Sources
Article by Friedemann Müller
So far so good. The West handily survived its misplaced hysteria over the oil crisis of 1973. But now Europe must overcome its smugness about importing half its energy needs in fairly rigid arrangements. The EU’s interest in a competitive gas market conflicts with Russia’s interest in being a monopoly supplier. Europe must follow America’s lead in assuring its energy security, gain access to Caspian oil, and make long-term gas contracts with Russia.
Will Widening Paralyze the EU?
Article by Udo Diedrichs und Wolfgang Wessels
Enlargement will strain EU cohesiveness. Taking in ten new members with a wide spectrum of historical, cultural, political, and economic differences next year will put Europe’s institutions under considerable pressure. In reforming these institutions in the ongoing European constitutional convention, the EU must be careful not to adopt changes that would pull the Union apart centrifugally rather than preserve its commonality.
Two Cheers for the Euro
Article by Elke Thiel
As the euro comes close to regaining the fifth of its value it lost against the dollar after the virtual currency was born three and a half years ago, it’s time to take stock. After coming into purses and pockets on January 1, 2002, the real coins and notes are already a huge success. Yet the impulse a single currency was supposed to give to European economic reforms has not materialized. Nor is there any discernible common European policy on world financial issues.
Which Europe for Turkey?
Article by Zuhal Yesilyurt Gündüz
The new government of Prime Minister Erdogan, having survived its baptism by fire in the Iraq war, still wants to win Turkish membership in the EU as soon as possible. Turkey has already introduced many of the reforms required by the EU, and more are on the way. A bit of friendly encouragement—and the assurance that EU membership is based on common values, and not on religious or ethnic homogeneity—would greatly help.
Yes to Turkey
Article by Dietrich von Kyaw
Ever since 1963 Turkey has been promised eventual membership in the EU. Yet the nearer Ankara comes, it sometimes seems, the more hurdles are placed in its path. The EU should acknowledge that it is legally as well as morally obligated—pacta sunt servanda—to fulfill its promises. Geostrategically, economically, and historically, this is the only sensible European approach. Such staunch Christians as Konrad Adenauer and Walter Hallstein stated precisely this forty years ago.
No to Turkey
Article by Heinrich August Winkler
The EU should not give Turkey full membership, but only a privileged partnership of some sort. The reason is that Turkey simply does not share the West’s historical and political heritage. In the past it never experienced that seminal separation between religious and temporal power. Its entry into the EU—especially when high birth rates would make it the largest country in the club in 15 years—would endanger Europe’s sense of a common identity.
Poland Confronts its Past
Article by Antony Polonsky
Polish-Jewish hostility has been one of the terrible legacies of the Holocaust. It would be too much to expect reconciliation just yet. But there is at least a new possibility of better mutual understanding, especially among the young. The catalyst is the revelation of the burning alive of hundreds of Jews by Polish neighbors in the village of Jedwabne in 1941. The compiler of the definitive history of Polish Jewry looks at today’s Polish and Jewish responses.
Canada Warms to ESDP
Article by Markus Kaim
Ottawa feels itself pulled both toward its giant North American neighbor and toward European allies. Its original reservations about EU moves in the direction of a common European Security and Defense Policy reflected Washington’s worries that a competitor to NATO might thereby be set up. Its change of heart a year ago reflected the conjunction between its own rich peacekeeping experience and European goals. Canada is now ready to participate directly, ad hoc, in ESDP operations.
The French-German Partnership
Article by Rudolf von Thadden
Washington may see French-German amity as directed against the US. But the French and Germans themselves have a rather more benign view of the reconciliation they strove so hard to achieve in post-World War II Europe after their century and a half of enmity. The German Foreign Ministry Coordinator for French-German Relations describes just how much of a miracle that reconciliation was.
The Chinese Puzzle
Article by Eberhard Sandschneider
The Chinese Communist Party finally executed an orderly leadership change last fall without the old ritual purges. But it remains to be seen whether the dynamic modernizing coastal regions or the sluggish backwaters will decide the county’s future course. Some Western observers expect stability, some instability. Americans and Europeans should combine their analyses and find common cause in pragmatic and flexible relations with Beijing.
Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia
Article by Martin Wagener
The great majority of Muslims in Southeast Asia are moderates. But since adherents of Islam constitute 40% of the region’s 500 million, al Qaeda actively seeks to exploit grievances there to recruit terrorists in the name of Islam. It runs its own cells, and it also cultivates contacts with an archipelago of autonomous Islamic radicals in Southeast Asia. Abbu Sayaf and Omar al Faruq are only the beginning.
