Recasting U.S. Interests and Influence in Europe: Toward a Strategic Partnership

Abstract

Abstract : This essay represents a synthesis of nearly 7 months' study of U.S. and European security issues at the National War College. It results from insights gained through readings, seminars, lectures, and meetings with top U.S. and foreign civilian and military policy makers and national security specialists. The essay will examine U.S. security interests in Europe, European views of its own and U.S. security interests, and potential arrangements for securing those interests. Competition in responding fully to the challenges of a redefined strategy toward Europe will come not only from other deserving geographic regions, but from the perennial American penchant to reduce foreign entanglements, and increasingly from preoccupation with resolving domestic economic and budgetary problems. If, as this essay suggests, the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) is at risk of being marginalized by other European-only security frameworks whose form and substance are only beginning to take shape, and whose definition is by no means assured, the need arises to provide other mechanisms for ensuring full expression of U.S. interests in Europe. Against this backdrop, this examination of U.S.-European security interests will be conducted with a critical eye toward the potential for intensifying U.S.-German relations -- a strategic partnership with arguably the new center of gravity in Europe. The author is particularly indebted to Colonel Eckart Fischer, Federal Republic of Germany Army, and adjunct Instructor at the National War College, both for his insights on German views of post-Cold War European security arrangements as provided through his advanced regional studies course on Germany, and for providing meaningful access to senior German and other European diplomatic and military officials. Their candid discussions were invaluable in determining trends and tendencies in U.S.-European security relations.