A European Perspective

Abstract

The transformations in Europe’s security environment that force our attention on new terms of Atlantic cooperation mark an historic turning-point. Ties between the United States and Western Europe took their current shape from stark conditions: the mortal threat from the East, and reliance on American power and leadership to counteract it. Disappearance of the threat itself reduces dependency on the US; shifting weights and competences in the Atlantic community reinforce the logic of striking a new transatlantic balance. How that transition is made, toward what new equilibrium point, is being influenced by a larger process — the political evolution of post-communist Europe. Today that evolution looks problematic.