How Europeans Disappoint Obama

Barack Obama arrived in Germany – presumably with mixed feelings. For months the United States president has spoiled Europe with his “Charm-Offensive”, from environmental policy to diplomacy; however, there has been no response. Europe risks squandering a historic chance.

In terms of political preferences, Barack Obama is probably the most “European” president America has ever had. He wants to rebuild the U.S. on the model of European welfare states, is taking global warming as seriously as most Europeans, and has prescribed an eco course for the the automobile industry. He’s returning foreign policy to multilateralism, long the creed in Europe; Obama also wants to deal with rogue nations, and believes that America must rebuild her “soft” power to influence allies with arguments and good planning, rather than through pressure and instruments of power. No wonder he was the candidate supported by a majority of Europeans during the elections. So far, it’s brought him little in return.

Naturally: The new term began with a trans-Atlantic festival of friendliness. On his first presidential European trip in early April, to London, Straßburg/Kehl/Baden-Baden and Prague, Obama humbly and modestly apologized for U.S. responsibility in triggering the financial crisis. Obama was so humbled that he significantly increased a few military contingents in Afghanistan, despite European allies who did not want to support them – with already-mounting costs – preferring engagement in similar efforts to win the war on the front in the Hindu Kush.

These days, when one listens in Washington, one hears evidence of increasing disillusion. The official version goes: The Obama administration never expected the Charm-Offensive to bring about the quick results that were to result entirely from longer processes and investment in the future. The unofficial version is more pessimistic. The dominant feeling is that the U.S. has undertaken extraordinary steps, in order to make Europe a real partner in managing world problems, and Europe remains passive.

The continent is currently squandering a historical chance. For years, it was not only the American left, but also conservative Bush critics who argued the old administration could have gotten much more help from Europe, if they had handled their Atlantic allies with greater partnership. Now Europe has gotten its dream president and is behaving as it did before. The troop increases in Afghanistan, which Obama was promised during his trip in April, were so meager that they almost bordered on insult.

A STRATEGY, WHICH BEARS NO FRUIT

Admittedly, one can understand why the German government did not want to make any moves before the elections. But the skepticism toward Europe’s ability to make itself a substantial part of the solution to global problems continues to grow. Europe cannot even handle the Balkans that sit on their own doorstep, which is why Obama dispatched the vice president there. As if there weren’t already enough crisis points in the world for Joe Biden to worry about: One hears this with chagrin.

If Europe continues to act passively during the next year, Obama will have to set new priorities – alone – because he will be vulnerable, if his strategy of reconciliation and rapprochement do not bear fruit. Meanwhile, it seems Washington has resigned itself to what falls into the scope of “hard” power, reminding all that the campaign against the Taliban will primarily be America’s war, because the contingents sent by allied forces will be relatively few, compared to the increased number of American troops.

It is completely devastating to the Obama people, however, that Europe has no fresh ideas to offer, even in other areas. The trans-Atlantic brainstorming over Afghanistan and other global problems remains, for the most part, another one-way street, following the old model: America proposes, and the rest of the West disposes. Europe is currently missing the chance to grow up, in terms of strategic questions.

EUROPE CARRIES ON WITH SELF-IDOLIZATION

As a result, the reaction within the Obama camp toward the self-righteous advice from Europe is becoming increasingly allergic. For example, the German chancellor likes to use the word, “integrated”, for the approach to Afghanistan, meaning: We are here to pass out candy, and the Americans, Canadians, British and Dutch are here to throw bombs. But we want to want to be there for civilian construction, where we’re really needed – for those released from the Taliban and for liberated regions – not deeper involvement.

That Europe dedicates itself so much to the civilian component is, in itself, a form of self-idolization. Ultimately, in the battle zones towards the south, it is not even possible to engage in civilian construction without a stronger security component. Moreover, Europeans – especially Germans – have, to date, not delivered, even in the construction of civilian institutions. Some held their breath when Angela Merkel suggested in February, at the Munich Security Conference, that maybe the Afghanis should be asked what kind of a police force they would actually like to have. It is Germany that, since the Petersburg Agreement in late 2001, has held the role of “lead nation” in the training of police forces.

Years later, the chancellor has realized that one should ask Afghanis what their wishes are. Germany – long ago having established its police mission in Afghani sand – never had more than 40 trainers in Kabul; did not go into the provinces, instead, unloading that responsibility onto Europe; and, thus, did not act particularly effectively. Here, too, for years, the Americans have played the role of “clean-up” and are shouldering a large part of the police force training, themselves. The ever-common European cliché about Americans, that they would rather shoot than rebuild, has been wrong for quite a while.

WITH SEPTEMBER 11, WORLD HISTORY REVERTS TO ITS OLD WAYS

Afghanistan is only one of many examples of how Europe invariably prefers its civilian power – yet, also in that arena, without impressive effort. Even in Obama’s Washington, the impression is strengthening that European passivity in recent years was maybe not completely because of Bush, after all. He was possibly merely an excuse.

The truth is this: Europe has comfortably established itself away from the winds of world history. During the Cold War, it became accustomed to the fact that the security of [Western] Europe would be taken care of by Americans. In the 90s, in particular, there were reductions in defense budgets, in order to rake in on the profits of freedom. With September 11, world history lapsed back into its old ways. For long years, a combination of European lethargy and Bush’s arrogance has worked against a Europe reacting in a meaningful way on the ever-changing world stage.

In Washington, where people are accustomed to thinking in global dimensions, there is an awareness that the West must combine its forces in order to face the changing balance of power on the globe, as well as multiple, local crises. And now America also has a president who has won the hearts of Europe and who seems as if he were suited for the task of leading the West into a newer compactness and strength.

“IT WASN”T THAT EUROPE WASN’T BEAUTIFUL”

At the moment, it seems as though Europe is not in the position to play its role. But one should not kid oneself about the old continent: The time when America felt a greater sentimental bond to Europe is slowly drawing to an end. Even the president, who – politically – seems to stand closest to Europe, symbolizes this change, biographically, as well as socially. Barack Obama’s focus on the world is toward Asia, not toward Europe. He grew up in Hawaii, that Pacific island, lying between America and Asia. His international experience was acquired in Indonesia, where he attended school for many years.

Through his father’s family, he is linked to Africa. The current president was in his 20s, when he first stepped foot on European soil – as a stopover on his was to Kenya. “It wasn’t that Europe wasn’t beautiful”, Obama wrote in his memoirs about his first visit to the old continent, “Everything was just as I imagined it. It just wasn’t mine.”

Obama also lacks the family and cultural ties characteristic of the traditional, American political elite for centuries. Even those whom Obama has moved into powerful positions in Washington are far more diverse and un-European in their backgrounds than before. Little by little, the power base in America is changing and becoming more like the whole country: Asian, South American and darker in skin color.

Obama has shown that he will be unsentimental in dropping political travel companions, if they become a burden to him. And Europe cannot gamble on the idea that Obama harbors any sentimental feelings for the old continent. If Europe wants to be taken seriously as a partner, it must provide more that mere pleasantries.