Ideological Convergence: A New Way

EU Summit Sets Blueprint for Improved Decision-Making
Stefan Froehlich, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center

Berlin is credited with getting a treaty deal at the EU summit, capping the German presidency. The new institutional consensus for the EU ends a two-year psychological slump over the stymied constitution. Angela Merkel provided strong leadership, especially when confronted with complaints from Poland. She got significant help from France’s Nicolas Sarkozy. With Prime Minister Gordon Brown there may be a leadership troika empowering the EU on foreign policy.

U.S. Attitudes Evolve About EU Security Ambitions
Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, Senior Fellow, Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University

American interest in the EU focuses on uniquely important trade and financial ties across the Atlantic, an increasingly narrow approach to the relationship. The EU reorganization at the summit was not front-page news in U.S. media. On security, American hopes for Europe are defined in terms of U.S. self-interest.

Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair on Britain’s EU Vision

Addressing the European Parliament after the Constitution’s defeat, Blair said that economic modernization is the only hope for saving Europe’s societies. Without it, Europeans will become victims of globalization, not its winners. He challenged, as wrong, the stereotype of Britain as a place of heartless capitalism at odds with social protection. A stirring call for leadership – even though Blair failed to provide it.

The U.S. and EU Must Not Get Distracted from Agenda
A talk with Kurt Volker, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs

For the Bush administration’s remaining 18 months in office, the State Department has a short list of main concerns for the region. They are the end state of Kosovo; relations with Russia, particularly concerning energy and security; and moves to stabilize Afghanistan. Volker analyzes this list through the prism of relations with Europe.

Excerpts:

U.S. State Department’s Short List in Europe: Three Goals to 2009
Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs

In U.S. View, Kosovo Independence is Inevitable Now
R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs

U.S. Warned Russia about European Missile Defense Plan
Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs

Pharmaceuticals Pricing: U.S. and European Strategies
Gretchen Jacobson, Health Economist and Analyst, Congressional Research Service

It is conventional wisdom that European health services keep down drug prices to protect their budgets, with a side-effect of stifling innovation – and that as a result cutting-edge research is being forced to migrate to the U.S. An informed, systematic look at pricing mechanisms and other factors shows that this picture is over-simplified, and that much finer-grained research is needed before it is possible to credibly determine a “best practice” on pharmaceuticals.

Food Safety and Labeling: Lessons Learned
Jane Earley, International Trade Consultant, World Wildlife Fund

Amid a wave of U.S. food scares – comparable to those in Europe a few years ago – interest is reviving in the long-controversial call for more detailed labeling of food products. This issue is even hotter where genetically-modified organisms are involved. European consumers must learn there is no 100 percent protection. Regulatory approaches have to fit societal preferences.

U.S. Intelligence Tackles Climate Change
Gregory F. Treverton, Director, Center for Global Risk and Security, RAND Corporation

Is there a useful role for intelligence on global warming? Yes, if the task is approached the right way by the U.S. intelligence community. The “spooks” have no knowledge to add to the findings of scientists. What they can do is tap their understanding of social conditions in endangered global regions and produce useful estimates about the likely consequences and possible responses.

Outflanking Russia’s Energy Grip on Europe
Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Moscow has a virtual monopoly on natural gas supplies to Europe. Monopolies such as Gazprom tend to charge extortionate rates – such as its current practice of buying gas cheap in Central Asia to sell expensively to Europe. The United States wants to break Moscow’s stranglehold by getting companies and countries to finance and build new pipelines that circumvent Russia and Iran.

A Tale of Two Václavs
Michael Kraus, Frederick C. Dirks Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College

This generation of Czechs has been governed by two men – Václav Havel, resistant and playwright, and now Václav Klaus, a technocrat and survivor. The duel of their conflicting views may have added to the passivity often displayed by Czechs – a contrast with the sardonic humanity in Havel’s new memoir. While happy to be in the West, Czech voters may not want a U.S. missile shield.
This generation of Czechs has been governed by two men – Václav Havel, resistant and playwright, and now Václav Klaus, a technocrat and survivor. The duel of their conflicting views may have added to the passivity often displayed by Czechs – a contrast with the sardonic humanity in Havel’s new memoir. While happy to be in the West, Czech voters may not want a U.S. missile shield.

Europe Is Not in Zero-Sum Game with NATO
Nick Witney, Chief Executive, European Defense Agency

The first (and now former) head of the European Defense Agency, Witney, a British official, says the EDA seeks to convince its member defense ministries to plan together on capabilities and weapons-systems to get economies of scale. Coordination can bring more firepower to Europeans – and to NATO.

The French Approach to a European Defense-Industrial Base
General Patrick Auroy, Deputy National Armament Director, Armament Agency, French Ministry of Defense

France is playing a major role in trying to promote trans-national defense contractors. European industrial strength will promote alliance-wide competition – for example, on an aerial refuelling tanker. Washington needs to acknowledge that France has export controls on sensitive technology worth of U.S. trust.

New Developments in Defense Procurement Policies in Europe
Bernard Rétat, Chairman, Defense Commission, AeroSpace and Defense Industries Association of Europe

Recent crises requiring military power have convinced EU leaders they need to equip their forces more effectively in order to strengthen Europe’s role and its capacity to operate with the U.S. Progress has been limited but, as Churchill said, “success is going from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm.”

Overtones of “Fortress Europe”

The EU defense ministers’ communiqué about a European Defense and Technological Industrial Base hints at a “European preference” for made-in-Europe technologies, according to a non-European participant at a European Institute roundtable. It would be better, he said, to look for more transatlantic teaming, especially investing in communications to allow interoperability.

U.S. Industry Too Chafes at Export Restrictions
William Matthews, Defense News

Eurozone: A New Global Context Favors Long-Term Growth
Yves Mersch, Governor, Central Bank of Luxembourg

An underestimated effect of globalization is the nearly worldwide spread of financial success – and therefore an increase in the sources of strength to sustain global growth. This is one factor in an optimistic analysis about the prospects for historically strong growth rates to continue. In his analysis, Yves Mersch, head of the Luxembourg Central Bank, and a member of the Governing Council at the European Central Bank, argues that the eurozone is increasingly able to sustain its own economic resiliency despite a downturn in the U.S. economy.

Global highlights and local sidelights culled from the media

Of possible interest to our readers, books are listed here and briefly described.
Some of them will be reviewed extensively in future European Affairs issues.

Europe’s Most Influential Love-Hate Relationship
That Sweet Enemy: the French and the British from the Sun King to the Present by Robert and Isabelle Tombs
Reviewed by Avis Bohlen

A Permanently Interventionist America?
Dangerous Nation by Robert Kagan
Reviewed by James Steinberg

U.S.-French “Culture Wars” – a Constructive Take
De la Culture en Amérique (On Culture in America) by Frederic Martel
Reviewed by François Clemenceau

Dispelling Myths about the Spanish Civil War
The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor
Reviewed by Michael Mosettig

Europe’s Leaders Should Stop Scapegoating the EU
“L’Europe n’est pas ce que vous Croyez” (Europe Isn’t What You Think It Is) by Jacques Barrot
Reviewed by Alexandra Chevalier