Trans-Atlantic Relations in a Postmodern World - Hardcover

Speekenbrink, Anton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1496989449 ISBN 13: 9781496989444

Publisher: Authorhouse, 2014

Synopsis

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a pivotal moment deeply impacting the post-World War II order, with American nuclear might standing sentinel for the preservation of the liberal democratic values of the trans-Atlantic community. The end of the ideological struggle freed the forces shaping the postmodern world. The end of the security trade-off, American nuclear protection against critical but loyal European support, meant that a new partnership based on equality, mutual respect, and legitimate self-interest was needed and that stability and peace on the Eurasian landmass was the overriding goal. Neither the United States nor Europe, the two constituent communities of the Western world, grasped the opportunity to bring about the needed change. Both remained prisoners of their past instead of innovators of the common future. American exceptionalism and Russophobia was the maze that entrapped the first; introvert preoccupation and divisiveness of purpose lamed the other. The book traces the formative forces of the geopolitical environment during the Cold War and the decades beyond and places these in the context of the emerging postmodern world order: where regional and global project-driven functional cooperation is gradually replacing the Westphalian state, where the provision of physical security and the material well-being for the individual replaces ideology as the driving force for political action, and where the rule of law prevails over the rule of power. The penultimate section enumerates some of the most significant issues facing the trans-Atlantic partnership and formulates policy suggestions on how to deal with them. Acknowledging the significant differences within the partnership, the two main themes are: first, that these differences are more tactical than fundamental and can and must be overcome; and second, that the partnership is essential for the preservation of the values and beliefs of Western civilization.

About this title

About the Author

The author studied at Georgetown University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Leiden University. In 1966 he joined the diplomatic service of the Netherlands. He served with the Netherlands's delegations to the United Nations and NATO, as deputy at the embassy to the German Democratic Republic at the time of the détente and the opening to the East, and at the military mission to the Allied Control Council in Berlin at the time of the fall of the wall. In The Hague he worked in the European integration section of the ministry of foreign affairs. After postings as ambassador to a number of African countries, his professional career ended as ambassador to Kazachstan, Kyrgystan, and Tadjikestan. He was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time to witness several of the most important developments in the trans-Atlantic partnership and in East-West relations and to observe first-hand the emergence of the post-Soviet successor states. He considers his writing to be a personal but objective view of the current state of the trans-Atlantic relationship and the most urgent problems confronting it. His intention is to provide the professional person not of the discipline who is interested in global political interrelationships with the information needed for a sound judgment. It is a pragmatic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of central players in the trans-Atlantic cooperation, the United States of America and the European Union, in the formative years of the postmodern world order: where the Westphalian state is gradually being replaced by regional and global project-driven functional cooperation, where the need to provide for the physical security and the material well-being of the individual has replaced ideology as the driving force for political action, and where the rule of law prevails over the rule of power.

Edition details

• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1496989449
• ISBN 13: 9781496989444
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 624