Sunteți pe pagina 1din 1

Klaus Larres, Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of

Ulster, and Professorial Lecturer in SAIS's European Studies Program, spoke


on "The United States and Europe in the Age of Obama." He addressed the
perception, widely discussed recently in Europe and among American
conservatives, that President Obama is not committed the transatlantic
alliance. European-American relations, in Larres's words, were "not the flavor
of the month" in Washington.

Larres asserted that the United States and Europe still had stronger shared
values and interests than any other international partnership. The Obama
administration had taken many positive steps for the transatlantic alliance,
helping to move past the rifts it had experienced under George W. Bush.
Obama had repudiated the aggressive unilateral policy of the Bush
administration and embraced a cooperative, multilateral strategy, of which
cooperation with Europe was a critical part. Obama shares many of Europe's
views on international affairs, such as the importance of "soft power," and
not seeing it as a zero-sum game.

There had been some problems, though. Popular admiration and support of
Obama is strong in Western Europe, but not so much in Eastern and Central
Europe, where governments were angered by his decision to scrap plans for
missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic. The
administration also seemed to be puzzled by the complex and evolving
leadership structure of the European Union, and not really sure who is in
charge. The president's decision not to attend a US-EU summit in Madrid in
May caused consternation, especially from Spain. There had been missteps
by European countries as well; even while they welcomed many of Obama's
initiatives, their material responses had been weak. While they urge the
closure of Guantanamo Bay, they have not been willing to accept any of the
prisoners. Their economic stimulus efforts were less than Obama would have
wanted, and they were deeply reluctant to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Despite the difficulties, Larres believed that US-EU relations were on a


constructive path. The Obama administration had renewed American support
for European integration, which had lapsed since the 1970s. Fear of NATO
being undermined by the European Union's Security and Defense Policy had
gone from American governmental circles. It had happened often before that
when the US was in dire straits, it asked Europe to do more, but when the US
felt stronger, it tended toward unilateralism. Larres expressed hope that if
the US emerged from the recession and the war in Afghanistan with renewed
strength under Obama, this could be avoided.

S-ar putea să vă placă și