{"id":186,"date":"2008-11-14T14:28:41","date_gmt":"2008-11-14T13:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soerenkern.com\/web\/?p=186"},"modified":"2014-09-13T23:16:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T22:16:36","slug":"europe-is-obama%e2%80%99s-first-%e2%80%98global-test%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soerenkern.com\/web\/2008\/11\/14\/europe-is-obama%e2%80%99s-first-%e2%80%98global-test%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Is Obama\u2019s First \u2018Global Test\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

President-elect Barack Obama is already facing his first global test. It\u2019s not coming from the usual suspects like Iran or North Korea, but from America\u2019s \u201callies\u201d in Europe.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Europe is Obama’s First ‘Global Test’<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Soeren Kern | American Thinker<\/a> | November 14, 2008<\/p>\n

President-elect Barack Obama is already facing his first global test<\/a>. And it\u2019s not coming from the usual suspects like Iran or North Korea, but from America\u2019s \u201callies\u201d in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

European leaders have congratulated Obama on his election victory by sending him a six-page letter<\/a> in which they benevolently \u201coffer\u201d the United States a \u201cpartnership of equals\u201d in order to address global problems in the post-Bush era.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s right: Europeans are calling on Obama to \u201caccept\u201d Europe as America\u2019s equal on the global stage. The idea behind this new man-to-man relationship with Washington was hatched by (surprise, surprise) France<\/a>, which currently holds the EU\u2019s six-month rotating presidency<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says the reason for establishing an equal transatlantic partnership is that \u201cthe world has changed.\u201d Europe has suddenly realized that the United States \u201cis not the only one concerned by the world\u2019s problems. The European Union has become more resolute\u2026. We don\u2019t want to play a secondary role any more,\u201d says Kouchner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Global Economic Power Grab<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Europeans also say it\u2019s time to usher in a new global economic order. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a series of economic summits<\/a>, the first of which is now set to take place in Washington DC on November 15. He says he wants the gathering to build from scratch a new financial and monetary framework, one that would replace the current system<\/a> that is dominated by the United States with a new model far more to Europe\u2019s liking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEurope wants the summit before the end of the year. Europe wants it, Europe asks for it and Europe will get it,\u201d says Sarkozy<\/a>. \u201cSelf-regulation to solve all problems, it\u2019s finished,\u201d Sarkozy says<\/a>. \u201cLaissez-faire, it\u2019s finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it\u2019s finished\u2026. It is necessary then for the state to intervene.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown<\/a> is even more succinct. He says the world needs a \u201cnew financial architecture for the global age.\u201d Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi proposes \u201crewriting the rules of international finance.\u201d The President of the European Commission, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Barroso, says: \u201cWe need a new global financial order.\u201d German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck<\/a> says \u201cAnglo-Saxon\u201d capitalist system has run its course and that \u201cthe United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome to the dawn of a new multipolar era, say Europeans. Not so fast, says US President George W Bush, who has poured cold water<\/a> on Sarkozy\u2019s plans for a top-to-bottom revamp. \u201cOur 21st century global economy continues to be regulated by laws written in the 20th century\u2026.We must also never lose sight of the enormous benefits delivered by the free enterprise system\u2026democratic capitalism remains the greatest system ever devised,\u201d Bush says.<\/span><\/p>\n

European Power Games<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s behind Europe\u2019s latest round of \u201clet\u2019s play superpower make-believe?\u201d European leaders are testing Obama\u2019s mettle<\/a>, plain and simple; they want to see if he will bend more easily to the European will than did his predecessor. European leaders never wracked up the courage to ask President Bush directly for a partnership of equals because they knew he would have laughed them out of town.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bush understood that Europeans were unable and unwilling to match their words with deeds. Faced early on in his presidency with the solemn responsibility to protect Americans from terrorism, Bush effectively told<\/a> European leaders to \u201cPut Up or Shut Up.\u201d Most Europeans decided to take their ball and go home. They then rode out the rest of the Bush Administration by salving their wounded pride with anti-Americanism<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If their past conduct is anything to go by, today\u2019s European leaders are about as interested in solving global problems as was Otto von Bismarck<\/a>, who devoted his life to empire-building and the practice of Realpolitik<\/a><\/em>. Today\u2019s European leaders are trying not only to revive the Roman Empire in the form of a unified Europe, but they are also seeking to rebalance global power in such a way that places Europe at the top of the international pecking order.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main obstacle to European superpower ambitions<\/a> is, of course, the United States, in whose likeness the present global system is made. Indeed, the unprecedented interest in the outcome of the US presidential elections in every corner of the globe has underscored once again that, even considering the current financial crisis, America\u2019s economic, political, military and cultural influence still remains second-to-none.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is where Europe\u2019s six-page letter to Obama comes into play. All the high-minded post-modern verbiage about global solutions to global problems included in that document is the eurospeak way of saying that Europeans want a final say in how American power is exercised. It is what Europeans mean when they use the words \u201cmultilateralism\u201d and \u201cglobalism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Will Obama play ball the European way and agree to turn the levers of American power over to others? Or will he, like Bush before him, recognize the European demand for equal status with America for what it really is? Will Obama stroke European egos with the superpower recognition they crave so much? Or will Obama call their bluff and ask Europeans to pull their weight in Afghanistan and elsewhere?<\/span><\/p>\n

Europeans seem to be hedging their bets. Sensing that the era of European free-riding may be coming to an end, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says that Europe will now \u201cmake sure that our contribution in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in responding to the global financial crisis, is strong and clear and in close alliance\u201d with the United States. But if Obama is anywhere as smart as Europeans seem to think he is, he will tell the Europeans: \u201cActions speak louder than words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, Europeans are trying their best to woo Obama by mimicking his own rhetorical flourish. \u201cThere is a need to open a new chapter in global harmony, global balance, global change,\u201d waxes Kouchner<\/a>. Europe wants to work with Washington to shape \u201can inclusive global agenda,\u201d says Miliband<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will President Obama concede where President Bush did not? Will he pass his first global test? It\u2019s impossible to know until Obama moves into the White House. But the stakes are far higher than many Americans may realize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soeren Kern<\/a> is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estrat\u00e9gicos \/ Strategic Studies Group<\/a><\/span>. Follow him on Facebook<\/a> and on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally published by American Thinker<\/a> on November 13, 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President-elect Barack Obama is already facing his first global test. It\u2019s not coming from the usual suspects like Iran or North Korea, but from America\u2019s \u201callies\u201d in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112,100,10,12],"tags":[20,9,41,173,175],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-americanism-european-union","category-european-union","category-transatlantic-relations","category-united-states","tag-anti-americanism","tag-europe","tag-barack-obama","tag-transatlantic-relations","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"\nEurope Is Obama\u2019s First \u2018Global Test\u2019 - Soeren Kern | Geopolitical Perspectives on Europe, America and the Middle East<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/soerenkern.com\/web\/2008\/11\/14\/europe-is-obama\u2019s-first-\u2018global-test\u2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Europe Is Obama\u2019s First \u2018Global Test\u2019 - Soeren Kern | Geopolitical Perspectives on Europe, America and the Middle East\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President-elect Barack Obama is already facing his first global test. 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