The Transatlantic Rift Is Getting Serious


By David Ignatius

Friday, February 15, 2002; Page A33


Maybe it's because this is an election year in Europe and politicians there are more likely to make inflammatory remarks. Or maybe it's because America -- at once victorious and vulnerable after its Afghan success -- is talking belligerently as it gropes toward the next phase of its war against terrorism.

But whatever the causes, the rift between the United States and its European "allies" is getting serious. You could hear the NATO alliance tearing at the seams on Tuesday as Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, denounced the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policy and warned that Europeans will refuse to be treated like "satellite" states. That followed similar comments from the French prime minister, Lionel Jospin.

For President Bush, it must be a relief to be heading across the Pacific this weekend, toward Asia and away from those pesky Europeans. At least Beijing supports his anti-terrorism policy.

It's tempting to regard the recent Euro-American friction as simply a dispute over Bush's "axis-grinding" State of the Union speech. Or to believe that, in the memorable words of the prison warden in "Cool Hand Luke" to Paul Newman: "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

But I fear it's something considerably worse. What is driving a wedge between the United States and Europe isn't simply a lack of dialogue but a growing divergence of interests and capabilities. If this imbalance is not addressed quickly, both sides will soon find themselves on very unstable ground.

The imbalance begins with military power. The United States is getting stronger, relative to Europe. It's like a marriage that has gotten out of sync -- with one partner feeling left behind as the other becomes more successful.

A new generation of U.S. military technology was on display in Afghanistan, and it is years ahead of what Europe has today -- or is willing to pay for in the future. From this strategic imbalance flows everything else: America doesn't need Europe to help fight its war in Afghanistan; and Europe couldn't help much anyway, even if it wanted to. European defense planners are concentrating their limited resources on building their own modest strike force, outside NATO. Militarily, these allies may not need each other.

This growing mismatch was the unspoken theme of this month's gathering of defense experts at the annual "Werkunde" conference in Munich. The NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, said it out loud when he warned that Europe could soon become a "military pygmy." But there's no sign the Europeans are willing to pay for the necessary growth hormone.

The fact is, the mercurial Europeans aren't even America's key diplomatic allies anymore. Since Sept. 11, that role has been played by Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

So how to save the aging Euro-American marriage before either spouse does something really stupid? One thing that would help is if each side tried to understand what is motivating the other's anxieties.

What Europeans don't understand is how much America was changed by Sept. 11. The example I use to explain this transformation to my European friends is my parents' neighborhood in Washington. It's a comfortable, old-fashioned place with big houses and tree-lined streets. Before 9-11, you would have had trouble finding an American flag in this comfortable suburb. Today, the stars and stripes are flying above almost every door.

American patriotism is so loud and self-congratulatory in ordinary times -- think of the ending of your typical Hollywood movie -- that it's hard for Europeans to realize that this time it really is different. Americans feel that they are at war. They feel vulnerable. They want to destroy the enemy before the enemy destroys them. Europeans may find that kind of thinking naive and simplistic, but they can't wish it away.

Now turn over the coin: What Americans don't understand is that Europeans have been fighting terrorism for decades. The British coped with IRA bombs exploding in the center of London; the French lived with bombs in the Metro and assassins in the streets; the Italians lived with Red Brigades that blew up train stations; the Spaniards continue to face regular bombings by Basque terrorists. The Europeans don't need to be lectured to by Americans about how fighting terrorism is a long and bloody war; they've lived it.

Americans also fail to understand how vulnerable Europeans feel because of their own growing Muslim populations. It's easy for America, across the water, to talk about bombing Iraq and Iran. But Europeans worry they will be caught in the fallout. The biggest undiscussed issue in Europe is the millions of Muslims living in France, Britain, Germany and other countries. They are a brooding, menacing presence for many Europeans.

Paradoxically, the struggle against terrorism is one of the few issues that could unite these wayward allies. The challenge now is to identify and destroy al Qaeda's networks of sleeper agents in Europe and the United States. The Europeans won't have to spend billions on new defense hardware. All that's required is that America and Europe work together on intelligence operations and police work. It's certainly a cheaper option than divorce.



© 2002 The Washington Post Company