The EU and the US Flashcards
Relations between the EC and the US in the Cold War
Us support for integration. Economy and the rebuilding of Europe. Resisting soviet influence.
Us have underwriting in European security, as Europe does not have to provide its own defense. NATO.
Development of competitive economic cooperation. Burden of international security on the US.
Evolving security tensions. Reagan has a much more provocative line with the soviet union. Tension with Europe.
Deep economic security interdependence.
Post-Cold War EC/US relations
US helps to shape post-cold war Europe. German unification - some leaders fight against e.g. Thatcher.
Continued economic interdependence. 2007/2008 Financial crisis. Distress spreads from US to international.
US continues to underwrite European security 75% of NATO spending.
However….
There is a strategic drift away from Europe with the primary council of security no longer looking mainly at Europe.
Tensions over burden sharing and modus operandi. How should we act in this new world? 2003 Iraq - explodes debate.
Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus. Robert Kagan, 2003.
US and Europe are fundamentally divided.
European approach - multilateral, enlargement, socialization and the use of soft power.
US approach - unilateral, confrontational, strategic threat and use of hard power.
Caricature hides differences within Europe and the US but still influential.
Tensions which back up Kagan’s argument.
Diverging geo-strategic focus. Transatlantic drift accelerates in the 2000s. Americans want no involvement in the Balkan wars, shifting focus to middle east and Asia in the 1990s.
Friction over relationship between NATO and EUs military capabilities. The Americans are happy for the Europeans to become more capable - sharing the burden of international security.
EU is critical of Us unilateralism - especially military interventionism. ‘Unilateralist overdraft’, 2003 Iraq.
Differences CTBT, Kyoto, ABM Treaty. EU support, US does not.
The Post-Cold War economic relationship
US investment in the EU is 3x bigger than in all of Asia. Investment has increased since the Cold War. EU investment in the US is around 8x the amount of EU investment in EU and China together.
EU and Us economies account together for about half of the entire world GDP and for nearly a third of world trade flows. 2022, c.$7.1 trillion economic relationship - This economic relationship has become stronger and stronger - although competitive there is reciprocal confidence in one another.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership fails in 2016. attempts at anything similar have not been reengaged.
NATO and the EU’s Common Foreign Security policy/ Common Security and defense policy (CFSP/CSDP)
Friction between NATO and EU attempts to develop military capabilities. Political friction - Trump is skeptical of NATO and EU.
Qualified support from the US but critical of unwillingness to ‘burden share’. Americans do not want the EU to have more autonomy.
Disaggregation of the EU when necessary. The US has to look at other Atlanticist countries to influence NATO.
Brexit - US wants UK to remain. EU development adjacent with US interests, need for UK cooperation.
Propose of EU/US security cooperation. Strategic influence no longer inline as they had been during the cold war. The EU has been very cautious of engagement with China, Us is dragging some European countries Eastern. AUKUS.
Trump
“The election of Trump poses the risk of upsetting intercontinental relations in their foundation and their structure” - EU commission president. European perspective - US rogue.
America first agenda.
Greater protectionism/trade aggression. Attempts to build closer EU/US relations collapses. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Climate policy change. Trump pulls out of Paris agreement.
Non-Traditional diplomatic approaches. Brexit interjection., rhetoric destabilizes Trans-Atlantic relations.
Israel and Jerusalem. NATO policy; public stance on European integration. Merkel starts talking about a more independent Europe. Trump criticizes integration.
Biden Presidency
Reengagement of multilateralism - region the WHO and the Paris agreement on combatting climate change. Rebuild confidence in what the US stands for and supports. Brings EU-US relations back into alignment.
Easing of Trump protectionism. 2021 reduction of tariffs of aluminum and steel.
Strong commitment to Ukraine. Coordination of EU-US sanctions on Russia.
Reindorsement of NATO - Drive modernization into NATO. Ukraine war influence.
Continued differences. E.g. China, Considered Us strategic threat.
European fears US political polarization. Rerun of 2016 in 2024.
Obama
Builds American confidence in Europe. Multilateralism, Tones down American use of military force. Blow back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Allows EU/US relations to recover.
Nielsen on EU and US relations
American neo-isolationism - “those hoping that the NATO summit would lead Trump to a more conciliatory stance were soon disappointed, as the American president chose to ignore Article V concerns.”
“Hillary Clinton would have won all European states by substantial margins.”
Trump presidency was uncertain - Europeans like predictability. Prior to Trump ties had been growing closer. Challenge of Trump can be of use to NATO - strengthen other countries.
Aggestam and Hyde Price on EU and US relations
Relations and divisions have deepened since the beginning of 2018.
The reasons for this are multifaceted and are not purely because of Trump.
Trump’s cabinet view the EU as bureaucratic, unrepresentative, and constraining. Serving the interests of a cosmopolitan elite rather than citizens.
European states are starting to move towards a more strategic military autonomy because of Trump’s lack of commitment to NATO.
“Trump is not simply the cause of transatlantic travails, but a symptom of underlying problems.”
