WASHINGTON -- The arrival of the new century finds the United States and Europe at a critical juncture. While the historic transatlantic partnership is increasingly being tested by agricultural and other trade disputes, as well as the passing of a generation for whom Atlanticism came naturally, few issues have the potential to be as divisive as current plans for Europe to establish its own defense force.
European members of the NATO alliance are striving to lessen their dependence on the United States and enhance their role in global affairs by assuming more of the responsibility for their own security. They are doing this through two simultaneous defense projects: participating in the adaptation of NATO for the 21st century; and bolstering the military capability of the European Union as part of its ongoing integration.
Both enterprises are closely related. The success of each will come largely from creating the necessary synergy between them, so that they are mutually reinforcing. This can only be achieved if Americans and Europeans strengthen the transatlantic security link by negotiating a structured relationship between the EU and NATO.
Efforts to modernize NATO actually began in the early 1990's with the establishment of a European Security and Defense Identity. The essence of ESDI is an agreement that allows NATO military assets to be loaned to our European allies. The decision to make these assets available in specific instances would rest with the North Atlantic Council, NATO's political decision-making body. The U.S. provided the critical support that allowed this measure to win the alliance's endorsement.
By the same token, U.S. support for the EU's goal of a Common Security and Defense Policy is vital to ensure that it does not lead to calls for America to withdraw from European security. The EU plan, launched over the past year, seeks to create by 2003 a rapid-reaction force that can act autonomously from NATO in circumstances when the alliance as a whole is not engaged.
Last December, when EU leaders formally approved their defense plan, they issued a public commitment to maintain full consultation, cooperation and transparency with NATO. U.S. officials, however, are looking for something more concrete. They want to establish a more formal relationship between the EU and NATO to ensure that the EU force does not gradually grow apart from the alliance and draw energy and resources away from it.
On Wednesday, the EU will establish interim decision-making bodies to provide political and strategic guidance for EU military missions. These bodies are expected to be rather small initially, and made permanent at the end of this year.
Now under discussion is a proposal that shows just how seriously Europeans are taking American concerns about the EU initiative. The EU has tentatively offered to give key NATO military authorities permanent seats or observer status on its Military Committee. If implemented, this would enable officials of the NATO and EU Military Committees to attend each other's meetings.
NATO member permanent representatives, who form the North Atlantic Council, should perhaps also be allowed to have a role in the EU Political and Security Committee, one of the other bodies being established on Wednesday.
Still, Europeans must confront at least two other key issues to turn their plans into reality and garner U.S. support.
The first is to acquire practical crisis management experience. The lack of such experience lead to the failure of European efforts to resolve the Yugoslav conflict in the early 1990's. The first steps in this direction were taken earlier this month, when the Western European Union for the first time commanded a NATO training exercise. The WEU is an existing European military alliance that is being merged with the EU.
In addition, NATO has agreed to have the Eurocorps take command of the alliance's Kosovo peacekeeping mission in April.
Secondly, Europeans need to develop the military capabilities their plans require. This will require:
-- Restructuring of European militaries from territorial defense to preparation for a wider range of contingencies;
-- More efficient use of existing defense resources;
-- Rationalization of the defense industrial base through European and transatlantic defense-industry mergers and alliances;
-- Winning public support to increase defense spending.
American support is vital to the success of these efforts. In the absence of this support, Europe and America will drift apart and their relations will become increasingly strained.
Louis R. Golino is a Senior Public Affairs Specialist with
the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress
and an independent analyst. These are his own views.