New old world
One of the biggest criticisms of President Bush’s foreign policy was the deterioration of our relationship with the European Union (remember “freedom fries”)? Consequently, one of the biggest promises of President Barack Obama’s campaign was that he will put our relationship with European on a better footing. President Obama seemed to have hope for more European commitment in Afghanistan and also more activity in stimulating European economies thus strengthening aggregate demand.
However, recent developments on the eve of the G20 meeting amd NATO and USA-EU summits have put some question marks on whether this will happen. In the words of Stratfor analysts: “Europe and Obama loved each other, but for very different reasons. The Europeans thought that the United States under Obama would ask less, while Obama thought the Europeans would give more.”
So far, Germany appears opposed to increasing deficit spending. The EU hopes to transfer at least some responsibility for a growing problem of East European banks to IMF – i.e Washington. And calls for less American-centered international regulation are becoming stronger. Even Czech (ex) prime-minister Topolanek has called President Obama’s plan a “road to hell”.
What are your expectations of the G-20 and NATO summits? Do you expect that our relationship with Europe will become better or it will stay the same?
future, global issues, international, military, peace, politics
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There is a reason the secret service collects the excreta of our most valuable heads of state who knows what drugs or evidence you can find. As far as Mr Topolanek who know what pharma he ingests. political posturing aside alianses can sometimes shift upon a smile or a bad nights sleep. Sometimes the fate of the free world will hinge upon the most trivial things that happens upon the NATO table.
though i dig klaus, topolanek is not so bad, either, especially compared to our politicians.
regarding europe, obama will find out that diplomacy is not a miracle cure, and that disagreements with EU (as well as other nations) were caused by diverging interests and not lack of diplomacy. the only thing where we could realistically improve upon is to stop lecturing other countries on how to run themselves. but i doubt obama will resist that temptation.