Obama in Europe

Barack Obama, the U.S. president for whom Europe swooned, is in Europe, on his first transatlantic visit. It’s more than probable, however, that this dizzying tour (the G-20, a NATO summit, meetings with the EU and Turkey) will end in a handful of hopeful statements and gestures – such as the apparent resetting of relations between Moscow and Washington yesterday – that are rather empty of concrete results. In the course of just a few months, the global recession has taken its toll on this sphere as well.

The transatlantic divergences over the management of the economic crisis, with Europe put off by the White House’s pretensions at fiscal stimulus, have in fact mortgaged substantial agreements at the G-20 summit. But certain other of Obama’s international priorities also are not shared on this side of the ocean. Afghanistan, which will be the focus of the NATO summit in Strausberg, is the best example of a situation where Washington, which a few months ago demanded more troops and greater commitments, conforms itself with whatever contributions to this crucial war Europeans make.

And yet, despite his almost exclusive dedication to domestic issues since he came to power – defining an ambitious reform agenda, and above all, a strategy to ride out the brutal crisis – the U.S. president has taken significant steps in areas that caused enormous friction between the Europeans and George W. Bush. Obama clearly has come closer to the positions of the EU on matters like Iraq, the indecent prison at Guantanamo, or Iran, where the initial U.S. diplomatic flexibility has had its first result in the conference on Afghanistan. On a subject as decisive as climate change, the new tenant of the White House has signaled a sharp turn with respect to the reactionary intransigence of his predecessor.

It would be a mistake not to respond to a concession from such a desirable partner. In the end, despite the inevitable dilution of U.S. power in new, powerful economic and geopolitical realities, there is not much that Europe can do without the consent of the superpower that remains the motor of the global economy and, in the last resort, the guarantor of its security.