by David Rawson | The transatlantic alliance and the 9/11 generation.
International politics of late have strained the perceptions Americans and Europeans have of each other to the extreme. One has come to view the other through the lens of foreign policy and diplomacy, placing far too much emphasis on the decisions of current political leaders. The division over the War on Terror has cast a noxious and worrisome cloud over transatlantic relations. At one level, the distortion that exists between fact and fiction is primarily the product of gratuitous stereotyping and name-calling, which reduces the French to elitist and wimpy peaceniks, and the Americans to arrogant and trigger-happy buffoons. At another level, some differences in foreign policy directly reflect the unique political characteristics of America and Europe since World War II. Europeans have trended toward social democracy, with an emphasis on social harmony and equality. Americans, however, have trended toward capitalist democracy, with an emphasis on individual freedom, social mobility, and self-expression.
The international power structure has embraced the American way. Yet the tie that binds America and Europe these days is popular culture, which, thanks to globalization and mass media, reaches exponentially more people than ever before. The social and cultural institutions and habits that America and Europe share—most visibly in media, technology, and consumerism facilitate the information flow across the Atlantic. Despite recent foreign policy disagreements, this link is intact, so there is reason to believe that there is a subtler development at work. The lack of popular discourse and exchange of ideas between today’s generation of Americans and Europeans contributes to the weakening transatlantic alliance. Isolationism among the nations of the West is a dangerous trend, because the new enemy challenges the very ideas and customs that Americans and Europeans share—the Western intellectual pillars of freedom, democracy and self-expression.
One unforgettable event in particular has made an indelible impression on the current generation of the West. September 11 was a wake-up call to Americans and Europeans that their common intellectual and societal roots have a pretender in radical regions of the Islamic Middle East. The coalitions in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have united the West to an extent. Despite the dissent of France and Germany in the latter, American and European foreign policies have shown some combined promise to combat the new and unconventional enemy comprised of Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists. Though the unified military response is important, it masks the understated weakness in the transatlantic alliance. The common enemy Americans and Europeans had during the Cold War unified them only because their differing trends in society and political culture were subordinated to the threat. The new enemy shares no intellectual roots with the West, as it violently loathes freedom, democracy, and self-expression. In many ways, the emerging threat to Western values is greater than anything ever put forth by the Soviet Union. The implication, then, is that Americans and Europeans, especially the current generation whose defining political event is September 11, and not the Cold War, have a window of opportunity to strengthen their alliance. The egregious stereotyping seems to be subsiding, but there is more to it than that. To put it simply: the West has bonds in the arts, in political and economic institutions, and in popular culture; the social order that breeds Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, on the other hand, has none of these characteristics but rather incites revolt against them. Frankly, that difference is too threatening to discount and instead squabble over old Europe, new Europe, and what everyone thinks about President Bush.
Political, religious, and social leaders on both sides of the Atlantic should encourage Americans and Europeans to come out of their isolation and demonstrate a clear intellectual unity against the ideology of hate and violence brewing in parts of the Middle East. This will not happen overnight, or even in a few years, but there are actions that can rekindle a strong bond between America and Europe for this already tumultuous new century. The political elites are beginning to restore the alliance to health: Secretary Rice and President Bush have traveled to Europe and offered renewed friendship. International politics is largely out of the control of ordinary citizens, but they can help in different ways. In America, the process must begin with a rejuvenation of domestic civil discourse on politics and society, but that problem—the red state-blue state schism—is for another article.
The easiest and most effective way for Americans and Europeans to seize upon the opportunity to strengthen the “bond of Western civilization” in the face of radical Islamic terrorism is to spend some time abroad. Tufts facilitates this more than any other institution by recruiting international students and sending Americans overseas for a year. Even then, it takes the initiative of the individual to learn about and integrate into the local culture while he or she is abroad. This may seem to be a narrow and shallow prescription to heal the transatlantic alliance, but interpersonal exchanges of ideas, experiences, and culture seem to be the greatest assets that the West can use to combat the notion that Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus.
Mr. Rawson is a sophomore majoring in International Relations.
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