New leaders usher in new era
by Bennett Murray
Political winds have been shifting over the North Atlantic. The past four years have seen a new generation of leaders take the helm in both North America and Western Europe, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel elected in 2005, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2006, French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 and US President Barack Obama in 2009.
It’s no secret that George W. Bush’s presidency saw a tremendous downturn of public support for the United States in Europe. According to a Pew Global Attitudes Poll, the percentage of people with a favorable opinion of the United States dropped from 83 percent to 56 percent in Great Britain, 78 percent to 37 percent in Germany and 62 percent to 39 percent in France between 2000 and 2006.
While Europeans’ view of Bush is of utter contempt, their view of Obama is utter infatuation. According to a BBC poll conducted in September 2008, 54 percent of Britons, 61 percent of Germans, 62 percent of the French and 69 percent of Canadians thought that an Obama victory would bring their countries closer to the United States. Amongst the 22 countries around the world polled, a full 46 percent of respondents said that Obama’s election would “fundamentally change” their perception of the United States, while only 27 percent said that it wouldn’t.
Trans-Atlantic relations have always been complex. Although we are all bound by the NATO alliance to protect one another from attack, the United States has shared a “special relationship” with Great Britain since World War II, while Canada remains a part of the Commonwealth.
Franco-American relations have been slightly more contentious, with Charles de Gaulle having kicked out U.S. troops stationed in France in 1966 as he removed the French military from NATO’s command structure.
While recent U.S.-German relations are historically less antagonistic than those with France, they still aren’t as strong as the Anglo-American bonds. But despite all these differences, NATO is arguably the most secure international alliance in history.
In July 2008, Obama offered his assurances to a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin that U.S. policy needn’t be a source of antagonisms with Europe.
“In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common,” Obama acknowledged. “In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe’s role in our security and our future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together.”
Even while attitudes toward America worsened in Europe during the Bush years, the same countries elected conservative, relatively pro-American leaders. Sarkozy, who has been described as “Sarko the American” in France for his emphasis on Franco-American cooperation, defeated the French Socialist Party candidate by a 6.12 percent margin. Merkel, who represents Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, saw soaring approval ratings following her election victory over the center-leftist Social Democratic Party. On the other side of the Atlantic, Canada’s Conservative Party also saw victory with the election of Harper.
At first glance, it might seem that the United States had broken the trend by electing its more liberal option. What stands in common, however, is that Obama, Sarkozy, Merkel and Harper have all broken away from their countries’ previous status quo. While the United States has grown weary of the Republicans’ version of conservatism, many Europeans and Canadians have begun wondering if they’ve taken some of their most leftist policies a bit too far. On an international scale of political ideology, all of these leaders are much closer to the center than their predecessors.
Last month even saw France return its military to NATO’s command structure, marking a major symbolic shift in French foreign policy. Sarkozy defended the move by saying that reintegration with NATO would give France more influence over NATO activities.
“We need strong diplomacy, a strong defense and a strong Europe,” he proclaimed. As the European Union continues to mature and expand, it’s interesting that Sarkozy would look over the Atlantic for a “stronger Europe.” As we enter the 21st century, Western Europe will realize whether its future lies more with the rest of the continent or with its stalwart Atlanticist allies.
Bennett Murray is a sophomore history major and can be reached at bdmurray07@earlham.edu.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
