Download AFP.11.2.Europe - High Point University

A BIT OF BACKGROUND
• Who has more people? The US or the EU?
– US = 300 million; EU = 491 million; India = 900 million;
China = 1.2 billion
• Which country in the world had the largest number of exports
last year?
• Who has a larger GDP, Europe or the US?:
– Europe = $PPP 14.9 T; US = 14.2 T; China = 7.9 T
• Compare the US and Europe over the last 5 decades… Which
model is obviously better?
• Does it even makes sense to talk about “Europeans”?
What is the Lisbon treaty, why is it so significant, and why
might Tony Blair become the first president of Europe?
EUROPE & THE UNITED STATES: ALWAYS
FRIENDS?
• US-Euro animosity at the beginning: Wars, playing off splits, &
efforts to end their imperialism
• WW1: America as an ambivalent and belated friend… Who left the
party early when she didn’t get her way
• WW2: The US as a legitimate savior of Europe and the decades of
political capital this provided
• The Cold War—Europe, the marginally grateful free-rider &
America, the happy, benevolent hegemon
– The Marshall Plan
– The formation of NATO and the UN’s Security Council
– The American model of trade and global economy benefited all
but especially the emergence of the early EU
• Did the end of the CW change everything? Will the Lisbon treaty?
US VS THEM: ARE WE NOW COMPETITORS?
– Who is “us”? Not just Ds vs. Rs, but also State (soft power) vs. realists vs.
neocons
– Who are “they”? Brit/Poland: Atlantists; The French(or just their media?),
Germany & most of Europe: Muscular multilateralists
– Do they hate us or just our leaders? Reagan vs. Bush-Clinton vs. Bush 2 vs.
Obama
– Realism and our interests: Divide and conquer the rising competitor…;
Their interests: Balance American hegemony
– Differences in the “appropriate” instruments of FP: Military vs. diplomacy
(Comp. adv=favored route)
– Humanitarian intervention: Are they are more skeptical in practice (our
“dogmatism” vs. their “empiricism”?)
– Different lessons of history: Their emphasis on consensus and
concessions vs. our unilateralism/ad-hoc coalitions
– Different values regarding productivity and capitalism: Lifestyles, social
networks, environmental issues, trade
– Does a more democratic Europe create even more problems for
US/Europe relations? Changes in the EU may harm US-Euro relations