Transatlantic Alliance Remains Vital to U.S. and Europe in Post-9/11 World, Concludes Council Task Force Led by Henry Kissinger and Lawrence Summers
Task Force Report: http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=6871
March 19, 2004 -In the year that has passed since the war in Iraq, the United States and its European allies have done much to repair their relations. Nonetheless, the partnership is still at risk. To revitalize the Atlantic alliance, Europe and America must forge new "rules of the road" governing the use of force, adapt NATO to meet today's threats coming from outside Europe, and launch a major initiative to bring about political and economic reform in the greater Middle East.
These are among the central findings of a bipartisan Council-sponsored Independent Task Force Renewing the Atlantic Partnership, chaired by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Summers and directed by Council Senior Fellow and Director of Europe Studies, Charles A. Kupchan. The Task Force included American and European policy experts, senior policymakers, and business leaders. (See list below.) The group also consulted leading European policymakers during its deliberations.
The Task Force concludes that the current rift in transatlantic relations is not solely a product of the war in Iraq, but that the war "brought these strains to a point of crisis." The roots of today's tensions extend as far back as 11/9, the day in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down and removed the Soviet threat that had for decades brought the United States and Europe together; strains were exacerbated, in turn, by the events of 9/11 and the U.S.-led war on terrorism, which created diverging threat perceptions and priorities across the Atlantic. "What is surprising is the extent to which the terrorist attacks on the United States, and the reactions of Europeans to America's response to those attacks, have transformed these differences into active confrontation," says the report. The end of the Cold War, Europe's continuing integration, and the new array of threats confronting the West continue to test the strength of the Atlantic partnership.
The Task Force sets out the following priorities for the transatlantic community:
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