EURODISNEY :

Bush can take comfort from friends in unlikely places : Of all Europe's leaders, Putin is the most attuned to the American agenda (Tim Hames, Times of London, May 30, 2002)

Every account, American or European, of this visit has highlighted the differences between the Russian episode and the time spent in Germany, France or Italy. Most of the explanations that have been put forward for this trip of two halves are, though, patronising and trivial. It is suggested that while fearless European leaders aired their disagreements with the President publicly, Vladimir Putin did so privately. It is claimed that Russia scored with the Americans largely because its protest movement is in its infancy. And it has been heavily hinted that once Mr Bush was obliged to stay up past his preferred bedtime for several nights running, a sense of irritation overwhelmed him.

There are three rather more relevant factors at work here. The first is that, after a period of considerable internal pain, Russia has come to acknowledge what the end of the Cold War implies for this continent. The second is that Russia, precisely because of its own experience, has a more acute understanding of what September 11 meant to Americans than most Europeans have mustered. Finally, again perhaps because of the recent past, Mr Putin can appreciate the scale of the change that is occurring in US foreign policy.

Europeans tend to regard the phrase 'American foreign policy' as an oxymoron. They dismiss it as incoherent and inconsistent and hold three elements responsible. These are the inexperience in overseas affairs of most incoming US Presidents (as if Tony Blair, Gerhard Schröder and Jean-Pierre Rafarrin, the latest French Prime Minister, were all Professors of International Relations before assuming office); the institutional battles within the US executive between the State Department (good in Eurothink), the Pentagon (bad) and the White House (confused); and finally the malign impact of a Congress full of insular hicks beholden to lobby groups (Irish-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Polish-Americans) who serve to distort policy outcomes.

Boy, the Europeans are having an awful lot of trouble adjusting to their own insignificance, huh? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 2, 2002 06:31 AM