European Reactions to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

While the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 pledges the European Union to a Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Iraq war bitterly divided the European Union. Tony Blair led England into decisive support for the United States’ military intervention in Iraq, followed by Spain, while the German-French alliance, the heart of the European Union, stood squarely and vehemently in opposition to that intervention. Extra-Europe Russia joined them in this opposition. French analysts argue that France hoped to provide a counterbalance to American power. This hope has been a staple of French foreign policy since DeGaulle. Now, however, France is part of Maastricht Europe. Giving an account of the two sides of Europe vis-a-vis the Iraq war, the proposed paper will focus on the question, Can the European Union survive the Iraq war? Is an integrated political Europe, as opposed to a European Community-style (pre-Maastricht) economic Europe, still possible? The European Union represents the foremost power bloc after the United States. Aside from tending to the internally divisive repercussions of the Iraq war, the European Union will be preoccupied over the next few years with the integration of ten new East European members. Will Europe be able to integrate these members economically (most of whom supported the United States) and integrate itself politically? And provide world Second Power political leadership? Will Turkish membership now be a top agenda item after Iraq and, if so, how would Turkish membership affect Europe’s political self-conception, its identity? While few doubt that the transatlantic alliance will survive, will the alliance be a one-way street toward American world objectives? While the EU has attempted to be a spokesperson for the states of the South in the WTO, especially in achieving a more equitable world economic order, will it have sufficient political clout to pursue this objective in view of American dominance? Will European regionalism be strong enough to support the cultivation of world-wide regionalism, as it has aspired to do? These are the vital questions that will be raised in the proposed paper which is founded on the presupposition that the European Union, as a critical supporter of the values to which the United States also subscribes and thus a crucial ally of the United States, is, at the same time, essential as the only viable democratic opposition to the United States. Together they could forge a more democratic world order. This will,however, require a strong European Union. This leads us back to the initial question of the paper: Can the European Union survive the Iraq war? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]