Airstrip One

An Overview - 19th November 2002, 21.28

Here's a good article that links the changes in US foreign policy to the internal political changes within the EU. The basic premise of this article from the World Socialist Review is that Britain's pro-US position is a declining influence in the EU, where a German-French axis has reasserted its authority due to shared geopolitical concerns: maintaining a military role independent of the United States; scheduling a summit to take a common position on the Constitution and working to prevent Turkey from acceding to the EU as a US proxy.

The world economic crisis, European Union (EU) enlargement, and the debate on EU governmental structures are forcing major changes in the political positions of the European powers, exposing deep economic and political fault lines inside the EU. Underlying the disagreements within the EU is the impact of US foreign policy on the European integration project. In its turn toward unilateralism and militarism, Washington is exacerbating intergovernmental tensions on the continent, instead of favoring European integration as it did during the Cold War.

Despite the doubtful provenance of this piece, it is a succinct analysis of the current situation, even if some of the arguments are speculative.