Tuesday’s Top Pick 1 Round 10
1st Place: Good Cop, Bad Cop
Since the fall of the Soviet Union over 15 years ago, Europeans complained about the one ruling power with great pleasure. Few Europeans, however, stop to realise what the Unites States through their dominating and overbearing behaviour is offering us. The advantages of having a global police force that does all the dirty work for us seem in fact to be much greater than the disadvantages on the occasion when we disagree with the means the US utilize.
As the Italy and the Netherlands article indicated most Europeans despised the war in Iraq and the unilateral aggression behind it. Other figures have shown that over half of the European citizens do not believe that any war can be just, whereas 80% of the Americans believe that war is possibly a good manor to achieve justice. This clearly illustrates the different mindsets that stand between them[1] and it lies at the heart of the relentless criticism America has had to endure as the dominant world power.
The EU, however, is in quite a comfortable position in this scenario. It is not suffering the domestic losses felt by the American army in their struggle for a stable world order but is reaping the benefits. It is much more disturbing when European soldiers might die if they should contribute to the achievement of that goal. Hence, the initial Dutch apprehension to send soldiers to the rather dangerous area of Uruzgan, Afghanistan.[2] Many Dutch politicians felt the area was not yet safe enough for their own troops. Indeed, several soldiers have died. Their numbers, however, are of course not in comparison to the amount of American soldiers that have paid the ultimate price.
An additional problem that arises when Europe uses its military forces is that the image Europe has of itself as a set of countries that were able to outgrow military force and have been able to maintain peace through the means of diplomacy and economic incentives is harmed. The UK has had to come to terms with the torture practices of their forces in Iraq prisons[3] and the Dutch although (probably not guilty of torture) have made some mistakes in the interrogation techniques as well.[4] In addition to that, as it turned out 14 European countries were informed about the illegal CIA flights and either cooperated or ignored the practices.[5] This has sincerely complicated matters as now the European Parliament, national politicians and citizens were forced to blame their own countries and governments and judge them as harshly as they have done the last years with regards to America. It complicates the image Europe has of itself and the transatlantic relationship between the EU and the US.
The EU would rather wash its hands in innocence criticising the many mistakes made by the other side of the Atlantic, after all, it is rather easy to criticize Guantanamo Bay, the war in Iraq and the torture practices in the prisons. It is easy to blame and disagree knowing that it is not in our power to do something about it. A hypocritical mood has arisen in Europe where we want to stand behind our historical western ally but do not want to get our own hands dirty as it is much easier to remain popular in your own electorate if one is able to point the finger to someone else and avoid blame. Indeed, there is an apparent paradox at work. Condemnation of Guantanamo Bay has been heard many times over the last couple of years while at the same time the transatlantic relationship is considered better than it has ever been. According to Javier Solana it is in fact ‘almost perfect’.[6]
The European Union and the United States of America have become very comfortable in their Good Cop, Bad Cop understanding[7] in which the United States does the dirty work. The current task division suits both parties rather well. Cleaning up after the US seems a small price to pay for a free ride towards a world in which they can be sure that the west will never be attacked in an outright war as they have the world’s strongest police force protecting them from harm. Europe is unable to protect the non-violence paradise it created themselves and are therefore only able to maintain it as long as the Americans do not join them in their non violent policy practices.[8] Thanks to our strong Atlantic ally we can permit ourselves the luxury of relying on peaceful measures as much as we do. There is not a single European country that has been willing to invest an amount of money in its defence policy that is even comparable with that spent by the US. A problem has arisen for Europe though. It is the fear that Europe is loosing global influence and America, willing and capable of unilateral military action, will become too powerful.
Despite this worry, the European countries do not perceive America to be a big enough threat to try to balance its power by increasing its defence spending, nor are they willing to suffer economic losses by putting economic sanctions in place and the Europeans certainly will not ally with the Chinese, who are willing to splurge on its defence expenses.[9]
Rather they thankfully accept the role the US has taken upon itself to play the world government[10] and merely have tried to make the process more democratic by creating the rules of the game through the international laws and institutions in which Europe seeks to have a voice as well. Or as Robert Kagan notes “for Europeans the UN Security Council is a substitute for the power they lack.”[11] The main challenge for many Europeans today then is to try to persuade America to adhere to the rules they invent. So far America, however, has been reluctant to do so, as can be seen by their unwillingness to succumb to international pressure to shut down Guantanamo Bay or commit to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. [12]
Certainly there is more to Europe’s unwillingness to increase its military spending and reduce dependence on America’s forces than a mere comfortable situation in which Europe can free ride with the security that America provides.[13] There is a real ideological struggle behind this where Europe would rather use diplomatic and economic sanctions and America is more likely to use military force. Partly this possibly stems from the historical experiences Europe has endured with the many wars fought out on their soil leading them to avoid such power politics.[14] This, however, can also be seen as a mere illustration of the strengths and weaknesses of each. After all, as Kagan concludes, if you have a hammer suddenly all your problems start to look like nails, and when you don’t have a hammer, you don’t want anything to look like nails.[15]
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