Changing Political Relationships: Europe and the USA in the Early 21st Century

Abstract

Recent decades have seen significant shifts in global power relationships; some of these are the outturn of long-term political economic changes (thus the ‘rise of China’); some of these are the consequence of well-established political processes (thus the ‘emergence of the European Union’) and some are the result of abrupt shifts in power and perceptions. Here the events of 1989–91 to 2008–10 are significant: the post-1989 triumphalism, the post-September 2001 unilateral choice for war, the 2003 invasion of Iraq plus the related series of actions in Afghanistan and finally the spectacular debacle of the 2008–10 financial tsunami sketch out a period of American hubris, the era of ‘hyper-power’, now ended. These events have signalled the end of any plausible aspiration to continued American leadership in Europe; the elites (and citizens) of the European Union (including the British) needs must acknowledge responsibility for their own future.