January, 2002

Alliance and Disintegration in US-European Relations

Khaled Abdel-Azim

There are many disputed issues in US-European relations, and particularly concerning defence and security policies. A clear discrepancy can be seen in the views of each party regarding the nature of anticipated threats and the mechanisms to deal with them.

The United States considers the greatest threat to come from the arc extending from Southeast Asia to Europe. This threat emerged as a result of the collapse of the Soviet empire, the emergence of new nuclear powers and the increasing Islamic fundamentalist tide. To face these threats, the US administration proposed the establishment of a missile wall. This project, however, constitutes a threat to European security interests. The Europeans are aware that should the United States give up the mission of protecting them, they would be subject to new burdens.

For the leaders of Europe, the Balkans represents the biggest source of threat as a result of the ethnic tension in several areas, such as Bosnia and Kosovo. The Europeans are becoming more convinced that NATO would refrain from intervening to solve the problems and disturbances in the Balkans, which would negatively impact the stability and security of Western Europe. The European leaders thus perceive that a common defence and security policy should be crystallised, which would depend on a unified European army rather than NATO.

Despite the achievements of the San Malo summit, the events of Kosovo demonstrated the European dependence on experts from the US army and NATO. The events of 11 September, too, have cast a shadow on the future of the San Malo arrangements regarding a unified European army and common defence stance. For many Europeans, NATO still represents the ideal military defence formula because of the US leadership of NATO, which alleviates European rivalries in this respect. These European divisions, however, only serve to benefit US interests, as the greater the level of European disintegration, the more powerful NATO will be at the expense of the European unified army project.

Uniting Europe on the economic and legislative levels does not guarantee a similar success on the level of defence policies. Military defence is totally different in nature from economic and legislative integration processes. Defence is the main criterion of leadership in the European continent, whose long history of sustained conflicts over leadership has led to greater US hegemony.