March 6, 2004
HOW TWO CAN BE ONE OR MANY:
Adieu to U.S. Unilateralism?: For over two years, transatlantic relations on the political and military front have been on a helter-skelter path. Could that period of confrontation — and mutual frustration — have come to a rapid end? Have the neoconservatives fallen out of favor in Washington? (Martin Walker, March 05, 2004, The Globalist)
The phone lines between officials in Washington and Paris are busy with cooperative talks and plans for a United Nations-backed peacekeeping mission in Haiti.Meanwhile on another floor of the White House, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is being hailed by President George Bush as "a person that can make me laugh, a person who is easy to be with. And a person who is easy to be with means I've got a comfortable relationship with him."
President Bush’s pursuit of unilateralism is dead. The neo-cons are out of favor. The Germans are back in the White House. The French are worthy allies.
We have all come a long way since those bitter and heated exchanges over Iraq at the United Nations a year ago, when the rows with the French and Germans threatened to tear the Atlantic alliance apart.
Here is the quintessential, and inane, Europeanist view. If America and Britain act by themselves, as in Iraq, it is unilateralist. If America and France act alone, as in Haiti, it is multilateral. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 6, 2004 11:42 AM
Mr. Walker's getting a bit ahead of history, here. The true test of whether the US is willing to act unilaterally will come the next time something valuable is at stake.
Haiti was nothing more than a sideshow, to all but the Haitians.
Mr. Walker also writes that North Korea's nuclear menace is being managed by an even more multi-lateral group, including China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea.
However, the US just told North Korea, in those same talks, that it's the US' way or the highway.
That sounds like forceful unilateralism to me.
Or, more basically, a rightful refusal to accomodate the wicked.
The US has been multilaterally working on the NK problem since before we invaded Iraq. In fact, "multilateral" has been the defining characteristic of our work there, much to the chagrin of some. Namely, Kim Jong-il and John Kerry.
Posted by: Timothy at March 6, 2004 4:50 PMNot to mention that it was France and Germany who came crawling back to us.
Posted by: at March 6, 2004 10:05 PMI wonder if he can see his tonsils from there?
Posted by: Genecis at March 7, 2004 1:30 PMA vigorous exercise of wishful thinking...
Posted by: Ptah at March 7, 2004 4:57 PM