Allies At War: America, Europe and the Crisis Over Iraq by Philip Gordon, Jeremy Shapiro

By Philip Gordon, Jeremy Shapiro

A radical research of the place U.S./European kin have long past wrong--and how you can set them correct ALLIES AT struggle is the 1st and so much entire overview of what went unsuitable among the US and Europe throughout the challenge over Iraq and is predicated on large interviews with policymakers within the usa and Europe. It places the hindrance over Iraq in old context through studying US-Europe kin for the reason that global battle II and exhibits how the alliance often controlled to beat its many inner problems and crises. It describes how the deep strategic transformations that emerged on the finish of the chilly battle and the disputes over the Balkans and the center East in the course of the Clinton years already had a few analysts wondering no matter if the Alliance may perhaps live to tell the tale. It exhibits how the Bush administration’s unilateral international relations and world-view helped convey already simmering tensions to a boil, and describes extensive the occasions best as much as the Iraq situation of 2003. Gordon and Shapiro clarify how robust forces such emerging American energy and the September eleven terrorist assaults have made relatives among the USA and Europe more and more tricky. however the authors argue that the cut up over Iraq was once no longer inevitable: it used to be the results of faulty judgements and pointless provocations on each side. opposite to the normal knowledge that says that the Iraq conflict signaled the powerful finish of the Atlantic Alliance, the authors warn that assuming the tip of the Alliance may quick develop into a self-fulfilling prophesy: leaving the USA remoted, resented, and liable for bearing the burdens of holding foreign safeguard mostly on my own. in accordance with those that argue that the Atlantic Alliance isn't any longer practicable or helpful, ALLIES AT conflict demonstrates that even after Iraq, the USA and Europe can interact, and certainly needs to in the event that they desire to successfully tackle the main urgent difficulties of our age. The booklet makes concrete proposals for restoring transatlantic kinfolk and updating the alliance to satisfy new demanding situations like international terrorism and the transformation of an volatile center East.

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Additional info for Allies At War: America, Europe and the Crisis Over Iraq

Sample text

In three successive crises in 1997 and 1998, the United States was unwilling to use force in Iraq without broad international support. Even after Clinton did use force in December 1998, the administration never abandoned the search for consensus at the UN. While that process certainly proved cumbersome and incapable of permanently solving the security problems that Iraq posed, it had managed to keep Saddam contained for nearly 10 years. More important, all of the alternatives seemed worse. Full-scale invasion was a domestic political impossibility and an international liability, internal overthrow was a proven failure, and unilateral containment punished American companies rather than the Iraqi regime.

Still, even while it wanted to lead, the administration remained 35 ALLIES AT WA R strongly averse to undertaking military action without significant prior consultation and international approval. Clinton expended enormous efforts to win UN support for a tough line against Serbia. He managed in September 1999 to win passage of Resolution 1199, which declared the situation a “threat to international peace and security” and demanded specific actions by the Belgrade regime. When a specific UN mandate for the use of force proved impossible because of Russia’s threat to veto, Clinton then sought a mandate from the 19 democracies of the NATO alliance.

But when he got to office, he found that forceful action in the Balkans was at least as difficult as doing nothing. Many members of Congress no longer felt that much was at stake in Europe, and conventional political wisdom, particularly after the 1993 debacle in Somalia, held that the American people did not want to take risks in the Balkans for humanitarian purposes. 32 F R O M C O L D WA R TO C L I N TO N The American reluctance to take foreign policy risks or exercise assertive leadership over the alliance was perhaps most apparent in the spring of 1993, when Clinton, having resolved to lift the Bosnian arms embargo and initiate air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs, sent Secretary of State Warren Christopher on a marathon trip to six European capitals to rally European support.

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