So how’s the transatlantic relationship doing?

One of the bizarre sociological facts of attending multi-day conferences about current events is that ? even as one is discussing policy topics of the day in earnest ? a news vacuum is created, shielding participants to facts both new and salient to the topic of debate. So, even as your humble blogger tirelessly debated ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

One of the bizarre sociological facts of attending multi-day conferences about current events is that ? even as one is discussing policy topics of the day in earnest ? a news vacuum is created, shielding participants to facts both new and salient to the topic of debate. So, even as your humble blogger tirelessly debated the state of transatlantic relationship in conference rooms, poolside bars, sumptuous restaurants, and then back at more bars, the following events didn?t come up that much in conversation:

One of the bizarre sociological facts of attending multi-day conferences about current events is that ? even as one is discussing policy topics of the day in earnest ? a news vacuum is created, shielding participants to facts both new and salient to the topic of debate. So, even as your humble blogger tirelessly debated the state of transatlantic relationship in conference rooms, poolside bars, sumptuous restaurants, and then back at more bars, the following events didn?t come up that much in conversation:

  • The US/EU co-hosting of the Iraq donor conference;
  • The sharp divergence of FDI flows between France, Germany, and Great Britain (click here for the salient OECD report)
  • Tony Blair?s peroration to the European Parliament; (link)
  • France?s additional difficulties coping with offshore outsourcing, as well as Germany’s ? a sharp contrast with how U.S. entrepreneurs are exploiting such opportunities (not to mention IBM).
  • The uneven persistence of America?s unpopularity in the court of global public opinion (persistent in Europe, less persistent elsewhere).
  • [So, the conference was a bust, eh??ed.] First, no conference held at this location can be a bust. Second, I left this conference feeling much better about transatlantic relations than I have in quite some time. I attended this same conference three years ago. It was a rancorous affair, with both Americans and European blasting away at each other’s flaws. At best, that meeting ended with both contingents agreeing to disagree on key issues of the day. This time around, there was a much greater sense of humility on both sides ? the Americans on Iraq and the Europeans on, well, the future of the EU. From this humility, a fair amount of pragmatism appeared. Americans on both sides of the aisle emphasized the need for the United States to accentuate its soft power resources in the rest of the world. Regardless of their attitudes towards Iraq, the Europeans who attended were far more accepting of a value-oriented foreign policy than in the past — i.e., democracy promotion. It was also the Europeans, and not Americans, who were questioning what the next step would be if engagement talks with Iran fell apart. Does the growing public resentment of the United States mean that this new spirit of pragmatism at the elite level will die out quickly? I’m not sure. I doubt Bush’s meeting with German President Gerhard Schroeder will be warm and fuzzy, but the leaders who are on the rise in Europe — the UK’s Tony Blair, Germany’s Angela Merkel — are the ones who favor closer relations with the United States. Despite Pew’s findings, it remains the case that anti-Americanism is an empty platform for governance. Developing….

    Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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