Foreign Relations

Reasoning for European Lack of Support in American Foreign Policy

The lack of the European Union, and individual leaders and nations from Europe, to support the United States in foreign policy seems to stem from two sources. First, over the past decade Europe has witnessed the U.S. back out, change, or ignore agreements or challenges presented by the United Nations or other world powers. Second, in waging a "War on Terrorism," the United States has created a war that does not target one specific nation. This puts European nations are higher risk, both politically and in terms of national security.

Call it ill-will, human nature, or politics as usual, but much of the "snubbing" the U.S. receives from former allies probably has to do with our nation's assumption that it can act how it wants in the international arena. Since we have a powerful military, this is to some extent true. Pulling funds from humanitarian concerns and international efforts like the Kyoto protocol has not made our allies happy (Drexner 34). This leads to the childish and yet very human response: "they don't support our international initiatives, why should we support theirs?" Following this logic, even nations who were formerly our strongest allies are unlikely to support us unless it is politically and socially the best policy for their nations as well.

From the very beginning, the U.S. "War on Terror" and related foreign policy has not been popular globally (Drexner 34). Many leaders and analysts worry that the unpopular actions of the U.S. internationally have actually put our nation at more risk of terrorist attack by clearly making us the enemy (Drexner 34). European nations are therefore reluctant to enter into a cooperative agreement with the U.S. On many objectives since they do not want to be associated with the war due to perceived risk of attack; close borders and trade between EU countries have made it more difficult to protect European national borders. Additionally, Europe's smaller nation size means that politics more closely represents the feelings of the people. With higher populations of sympathetic Muslims in Europe, it would be a very unpopular move to support the United States, even in the lesser foreign initiatives.

Works Cited

Drexner, Daniel W. "The New World Order," Foreign Affairs 86(2): 34-46.