Chapter 4

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP DIALECTICS
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"You can ignore dialectics, but
dialectics will never ignore you."
Leon Trotsky
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After the Cold War, relations between the United States and Western Europe were redefined; it repeatedly became evident how the quality of dialogue between the Atlantic Ocean’s two shores impacts not only Europe and America, but also global security. This chapter discusses the transatlantic relationship’s most significant elements. It will show the rationalities and contradictions, then reasons that differences of opinion generated by the Union’s newly gained strength changes the status quo, providing opposing interpretations in the United States and Europe. Specifically, this chapter attempts to address the transatlantic dilemma through the following questions:
  • Can the EU and US foreign policies turn away from competition and more toward cooperation?
  • What are the common economic and trade goals, which contribute to stronger transatlantic security?
  • What other individual alternatives exist?
  • Is the “divisible but not independent” concept feasible in transatlantic relationship, more specifically, can the Alliance’s European pillar and the Union’s ESDP strengthen simultaneously?
  • After the events of September 11, March 11, and the second Gulf War, can we justifiably claim more common interests unite than divide Europe and the US?
  • Do Brussels and Washington share the view that stable transatlantic ties are invaluable and necessary to maintain global security?

Since the Union’s most important external partner is the US, the dialectics and quality of the transatlantic cooperation fundamentally define today’s European security. Beyond the historical, cultural, economic, trade and security ties, the EU-US relationship is also a defining one because these are the world’s two strongest political and economic power centers. For this reason, the effects of the relationship and the misunderstandings are not limited to Europe and America, but have wide-ranging ramifications in world security. In view of the aforementioned issues, the thesis of this chapter is that the three most important elements of the transatlantic relationship are:

  1. ESDP development and the generated rules
  2. US foreign policy and as a subset its Europe-oriented policies
  3. ESDP-NATO confrontations

Reviewing these three elements it becomes evident that the European integration aided the expansion of the “unified” European power center modifies the long-standing status quo and receives different interpretation in the US and Europe. In view of these issues and looking at the EU expansions, enhancement of the common European security, defense policy and US foreign policy, we can safely state the existence of a number of ambiguous issues and visualize the unpredictable alternatives and contradictions for the future as well.

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