This volume reviews many of the highest priority issues faced by the United States and economic issues; the Middle East; the future of NATO and the European Union; the threat of nuclear terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; unfinished security business in Europe.
Focusing on the critical juncture of the transatlantic relationship, the book offers a thorough political, historical, and intellectual analysis of U.S.-Europe ties. Simon Serfaty advocates for the Bush administration to collaborate with European nations to establish a new transatlantic charter. This initiative would necessitate greater EU involvement in global affairs, NATO's readiness to address local security challenges, and the creation of a strategic security compact between America and the EU in the aftermath of 9/11.
In this comprehensive collection of essays, Simon Serfaty addresses the question of Europe's future and the new challenges to overcoming the ghosts of Europe's past. "Memories of Europe's Future" highlights the axes of discontent at home and arcs of crises abroad that may threaten European integration; examines the policies and institutions that have transformed modern Europe; and makes a powerful argument for the importance of Europe to the United States on the basis of compatible ideas and converging national interests. Now that the post-Cold War years are over, the critical question is whether the future will bring a resurrection of the worst features of a bygone era or a celebration of the best legacies of a more recent past. The future Europe, argues Serfaty, does not require a new vision of transatlantic relations. What will be needed on both sides of the Atlantic is the will to complete the bold policies that were launched during the postwar years half a century ago.
Does America still count in the world? Can the world still count on America? In raising such questions halfway into a series of systemic shocks that began in September 2001, Simon Serfaty, a long-time scholar of international politics, reminds Americans that their country’s well-being and that of the world are intertwined. Play it again, Sam: History is in a foul mood again, and this is no time to come home and leave behind an unfinished European Union facing the ghosts of a revanchist Russia still claiming the Old World as its own; a strategic dark hole in the Greater Middle East, on the eve of a global Sarajevo moment; and China’s surging hegemonic power in a continent fraught with too much history and too little geography. Admittedly, what is good for America may no longer be best for all the West, and what is good for the West may no longer be good for much of the Rest: the unipolar moment is irreversibly over. Yet, writing in an elegant style and with much historical insight, Serfaty argues that even with the old power map irreversibly gone, mainly to the benefit of the non-Western world, a new world order for the twenty-first century will remain dependent on the U.S. role, its capabilities and its efficacy, as well as its leadership and its purpose.