The False Crisis Over the Atlantic

Antony J. Blinken

From Foreign Affairs, May/June 2001

Article preview: first 500 of 4,433 words total.

Summary:  European elites lambaste the United States for bad behavior at home and hegemonic hubris abroad. These Europeans see an ominous transatlantic "values gap" emerging over the death penalty, guns, "Frankenfoods," and unchecked capitalism. And Washington's unilateralist obstinance on issues such as missile defense, land mines, and global warming only makes matters worse. But a closer look shows that Europe and the United States are in fact converging culturally, economically, and even strategically. This phony crisis in relations only makes it more difficult to tap the full potential of the transatlantic partnership.

Antony J. Blinken is Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served on the National Security Council staff from 1994 to 2001, most recently as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

To European elites, the United States has become a poster child for bad behavior at home and hegemonic hubris abroad. The director of Amnesty International France recently listed -- in this order -- his organization's most urgent challenges: "The corridors of death in America, decapitations in Saudi Arabia, mutilations in Sierra Leone, and political prisoners in China." French Education Minister Jack Lang labeled President George W. Bush a "serial assassin" for presiding over executions in Texas. Italian towns have adopted American death row inmates for whose clemency they lobby the State Department and members of Congress. British tabloids feature lengthy exposes of death row. Shareholders pressure European companies to divest from American states that allow executions.

It is not just the death penalty. Some Europeans see across the ocean a society plagued by guns and violence, gorging on genetically modified "Frankenfoods," and beholden to unchecked capitalism. Commentators on both sides warn of a new anti-Americanism that, in the words of British journalist Martin Kettle, "takes issue with the American way of life itself." Because these Europeans equate globalization with Americanization, they fear being overrun by values they abhor.

This distaste for American values is matched by concern that the United States acts like a bull in the global china shop, causing a strategic split with Europe over matters such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and national missile defense (NMD). To these Europeans, America's reluctance to join the global land-mines ban, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Kyoto Protocol on global warming evidences selfish unilateralism. Its fixation with "states of concern" (formerly known as "rogues") is at best naive, at worst -- in the case of sanctions against Iraq -- "genocidal." Europeans are skeptical of American support for European integration, especially in defense. And they fear that the United States and Europe are fated to economic warfare as trade disputes spiral out of control.

Together, the "values gap" and the "strategic split" form the core of a newly fashionable argument advanced by European elites -- and reflected by their American counterparts -- that the United States and Europe are growing apart. But a closer look shows that, far from diverging, the United States and Europe are converging culturally, economically, and with some effort, strategically. This false crisis makes it more difficult to deal with those differences that do exist and reap the potential of a partnership that can benefit Americans and Europeans far into the future.

THE VALUES GAP

Exhibit A in Europe's complaint about the United States is the death penalty. As former U.S. ambassador to France Felix Rohatyn has written, "no single issue evoked as much passion and as much protest" during his recent tenure in Paris as did capital punishment. One would think that the United States was the last of the world's barbarians. In fact, some 100 other countries permit executions, including large democracies such as India, Japan, and Turkey. International law allows the death penalty; the U.S. Supreme ...

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