Bush’s agenda isn’t isolationist. What Europeans do fear is that American unilateralism will take the place of collective decision making and, to use a favorite word of past American administrations, “degrade” the international climate. And not just in a figurative sense. Bush’s rejection of the Kyoto accords, meant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions around the world, shocked Europeans. Jettisoning any notion of the global good, he cast the question as primarily an American economic problem. It didn’t help that he did so before the American Congress instead of in an international forum.
This casts other transatlantic questions in a harsher light. Europeans are still unconvinced of the merits of a national missile defense system. But they’ve no doubt understood that nothing, save possible financial or technological constraints, will stop the Americans. And so, against their own best instincts, EU governments have decided it’s wiser to hold their tongues.
Their chagrin is partially compensated by Bush’s willingness to cooperate in the Balkans–a welcome surprise. And he has shown, if not enthusiasm, at least a healthy ambiguity about Europe’s own ambitions for a common security and defense policy. But the loud backslapping of mutual support heard in years past now sounds more like a distant echo. Europeans were conspicuously silent during the diplomatic fiasco surrounding the capture of the American spy plane by the Chinese. And they’re still uncomfortable with the attitude the Americans would like them to take with the Russians.
The image of the lone cowboy that Bush symbolizes is outdated and inappropriate. Unfortunately for Bush, it’s the image that lies at the heart of Europe’s feelings about America. Gone is the relatively docile anti-Americanism of the 1960s, when the United States still made Europeans dream. The America that Bush portrays is increasingly distasteful, immature and often simply scary. His support of the death penalty and his rejection of gun control are massively rejected by most Europeans, including that generation of Europeans who now speak English fluently, and who understand what a year in an American university could do for their careers. What they don’t understand is how Bush can think his country will excel without the rest of the world. Europe has tried, courteously and respectfully, to pass that message across. Old manners die hard, but they do die.
