Foreign Relations Reasoning for European

Foreign Relations

Reasoning for European Lack of Support in American Foreign Policy

The lack of the European Union, and individual leaders and nations from Europe, to support the United States in foreign policy seems to stem from two sources. First, over the past decade Europe has witnessed the U.S. back out, change, or ignore agreements or challenges presented by the United Nations or other world powers. Second, in waging a "War on Terrorism," the United States has created a war that does not target one specific nation. This puts European nations are higher risk, both politically and in terms of national security.

Call it ill-will, human nature, or politics as usual, but much of the "snubbing" the U.S. receives from former allies probably has to do with our nation's assumption that it can act how it wants in the international arena. Since we have a powerful military, this is to some extent true. Pulling funds from humanitarian concerns and international efforts like the Kyoto protocol has not made our allies happy (Drexner 34). This leads to the childish and yet very human response: "they don't support our international initiatives, why should we support theirs?" Following this logic, even nations who were formerly our strongest allies are unlikely to support us unless it is politically and socially the best policy for their nations as well.