Reinventing the West

Dominique Moïsi

From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003

Summary:  During the Cold War, the ever-present Soviet threat helped keep the West united. More recently, however, attempts to mend the transatlantic rift by pointing to present dangers have only deepened the cultural divide. Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic must accept that "the West" has now split into European and American halves. But both sides still need each other -- now more than ever.

Dominique Moïsi is Senior Adviser to the Institut Français des Relations Internationales. A longer version of this essay will appear as a report of the Trilateral Commission.

To act together, Europe and the United States do not need to think the same way, but they must understand the other's way of doing things. To ensure this, the future European foreign affairs minister (should this position ever be created) should have at his or her disposal first-class resources for analysis and prediction as well as strong institutional links with his or her American counterpart. Connections should be established between civil societies in Europe and those in the United States. And intergovernmental "contact groups" should be set up to extend cooperation in the war against terror to other vital issues, such as Iran and WMD proliferation.

On the American side, the United States does not have the luxury of ignoring the un. At the outset of the Cold War, Americans decided to give power to NATO. As the world faces similarly momentous debates, the time has come for the United States to give the UN genuine clout. From Iraq to North Korea to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the best long-term solutions will involve the international community. By the same token, Europeans should not think of the UN simply as a tool to restrain the United States.

Instead of using the UN as a pawn in their rivalry, Americans and Europeans should pool their resources and think of the best possible ways to reform an institution confronted by the gulf between its missions and its means and by changing legal norms. We live in a world where military interventions to combat failed and rogue states are becoming increasingly necessary. In this interdependent world, where we are no longer ignorant of one another's problems, we need to work together.

Reconciling the international legal order with the reality of American hegemony will be difficult. Europe will have to accept that, at times, the revisionist instincts of the United States can be legitimate, that the world's status quo cannot simply be taken for granted. The United States, meanwhile, will have to accept an implicit division of labor and be willing to defer to Europe in some cases, just as it expects Europe to defer to it in others.

The result might amount to something like the acceptance of two Monroe Doctrines, with the transatlantic partners each holding sway in certain areas, and on certain issues, that reflect their de facto spheres of interest. Europeans would concentrate on Europe, with a special emphasis on the Balkans and the Mediterranean, and the United States would have priority in the Americas and in Asia. Both Wests would support moderate leaders and promote the rule of law in their respective spheres of influence. They would collaborate in the Middle East, attempting to close the emotional gap between them over the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. And the two sides would also come together over a new doctrine of enlightened interventionism in Africa.

In building a new model of cooperation, Europe should learn from the United States' ambition, and the United States from Europe's modesty. America still dreams and makes people dream, and its revisionist instinct can be used to positive effect. But the United States badly needs Europe's postmodern instincts about the limits of power and its reflections on the imperial experience if it wants to avoid getting stuck in quagmires abroad. Responsible revisionism -- a better alternative to imperial revisionism -- can only be achieved if Americans and Europeans start thinking and planning together. The debate between unilateralism and multilateralism will remain artificial if it simply masks Europe's refusal to act or America's refusal to consult with its allies.

The worst-case scenario would be for America's West to turn into an oversized Prussia -- bullying, brooding, and obsessed with military might -- and Europe's West into an oversized Switzerland -- selfish and parochial, wrapped in neutrality. To avert this result, positive, rather than negative, definitions of transatlantic identity must be invoked by leaders on both continents. In constructing a new partnership, the unique legitimacy conferred by the international community will be key. To this end, both sides together must lead the way in reforming the UN, so that it becomes an institution with teeth, genuinely respected by the international community. Rather than competing for global influence or attempting to outdo one another in hard or soft power, the United States and Europe must accept a de facto division between their spheres of influence: a new Monroe Doctrine for a changed world. Finally, both sides must make a determined effort to transcend their natural prejudices, overcoming petty inferiority or superiority complexes. Europeans must accept the United States' unique international status and Americans must rediscover the virtues of modesty and self-restraint.

To future historians, November 9, 1989, will mark the end of the old West -- and the beginning of a dissonance between European and American interests. Let us hope that the bitter rivalry witnessed in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, will go down as a temporary emotional rupture, rather than as the end of a constructive transatlantic partnership.