The Transatlantic Partnership in the 1990s

Abstract

The transatlantic partnership in the 1990s consists of a complex web of institutions wherein the Unites States and Europe cooperate in the spheres of politics, security, economics, and culture. These institutions have shown a greater dynamism in the 1990s than perhaps at any time since their creation. Responding to changed security realities, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was enlarged to encompass the states of Central and Eastern Europe through the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) in December 1991 and the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme in January 1994. The main transatlantic partners are also the main players in the economic organizations of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank group (IBRD), and were the dominant forces behind the transformation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 1994. These actors also consult through the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized states and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). To these was added the Declaration on US-EC Relations of 23 November 1990, which established a framework for regular and intensive consultation. Recently, there have been calls for a further institutionalization of an ‘Atlantic Community,’ and proposals for a comprehensive agreement on foreign direct investment and a transatlantic free trade area.KeywordsEuropean UnionForeign PolicyWorld Trade OrganizationNorth American Free Trade AgreementUruguay RoundThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.