EU-US Relations: The Total Failure of the Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy and the consequences for the EU - by RM

The fall of the Soviet Union handed the U.S. a unique opportunity, as the surviving superpower, to lead the world toward a period of greater cooperation and conflict resolution through the use of diplomacy, global organization, and international law. This great opportunity to change US foreign policy doctrine was completely squandered by successive US presidents, who chose "the stick above the carrot" and consequently making the world a more dangerous place today.

The differences between the foreign policies of the EU, based on cooperation, trade , the environment,and Human Rights, and that of the United States became especially aparent during the Trump Administration, when Europe started staking out separate, clashing positions, on everything, from telecommunications to energy. The EU and US both issued sharp disagreements on the basic building blocks of foreign relations—namely, how the international system should work. French President Emmanuel Macron seized the spotlight, and sent the hearts of European federalists aflutter, by calling for “a European way” while raising the possibility of a French-led European nuclear deterrent, a precondition for any true independence from the United States.

If opinion polls are to go by, we are already separated. Nowhere is this felt more acutely than in Germany, the most important country in Europe. In January, Pew Research released a poll showing that 57 percent of Germans hold an outright unfavorable view of the United States. A few months earlier, in September, the European Council on Foreign Relations reported that 70 percent of Germans want their country to remain neutral in any conflict between Moscow and Washington.

For some European, Anglo-Saxon capitalism is seen as ruthless and rootless, mowing down the social order in the service of individual greed. For others, the United States’ dominance of the West breeds resentment, especially in an era of globalization, when even the slightest shocks from across the Atlantic hit the EU's bottom line or derail its diplomacy.

With the US Biden Administration in charge soon, the overall relationship between the two Transatlanic Super Power partners certainly will get off to a better start, but the US administration must certainly not expect that the status quo is re-established. Take note America, your former "lap dog" now considers itself an independent partner with its own voice.

EU-Digest