The Obama Moment. European and American Perspectives

20
Introduction
tools of aid, trade and diplomacy to stabilise troubled nations.’ 13 This is in line with
European interests, and makes further sense due to the involvement of the EU in
Afghanistan and the EU’s vested interest in meaningfully developing ongoing strategic
partnerships with powers neighbouring Afghanistan, i.e. India, China and Russia.
The same can be said of Iran, a country that is virtually a neighbour of the EU,
bordering on Turkey, and another critical issue for the EU in spite of the different
degrees of emphasis and focus between the EU and the US. In both cases, the change
in US policy, now concentrating on diplomacy and finding political solutions as opposed
to a former preference for a predominantly military option, greatly facilitates
a European role supported by European public opinion, which is quite sceptical for
the time being as to involvement in Afghanistan, largely seen as a Bush legacy. But it
will be more difficult to achieve consensus on a substantial European involvement
in stabilising Iraq, due to enormous public opposition to the Iraq venture. President
Obama’s decision to withdraw all troops is an important step that will give more
legitimacy to the Iraq government to find support among its neighbours and in the
EU, as Glen Rangwala argues, 14 for what is going to be a very complicated and demanding
period of reconstruction and peacebuilding. Here again the EU and the US
will need to work closely with regional players like Iran and Turkey who will play a
critical role in the future of Iraq.
The disarmament agenda stands in a category of its own. Throughout the Cold
War and beyond, disarmament and non-proliferation remained extremely popular
with European publics. In contrast, Obama’s audacious proposals (though backed
by adherence to the CTBT, a long-standing European demand) were received with a
mixture of scepticism and hope among politicians. Former French foreign minister
Hubert Védrine described Obama’s disarmament agenda as an ‘exercise in demagogy.’
European leaders in both nuclear and non-nuclear states who were rightly
critical of the Bush administration’s opposition to multilateral non-proliferation
conventions have however re-stated their commitment to disarmament as part of a
smart non-proliferation strategy based on a strong multilateral regime. The constellation
of issues around disarmament particularly illustrates the cross-cutting question
raised by Joshph Cirincione: ‘Now that the Europeans have what they seem to
want in terms of US policy, what will they do with it?’ 15
13. Daniel Hamilton and Nikolas Foster, chapter on ‘The Obama administration and Europe’ in this volume, pp. 37-
55.
14. Glen Rangwala, chapter on ‘From drawdown to partnership: Iraq after the American exit’ in this volume,
pp. 125-135.
15. See chapter by Joseph Cirincione and Alexandra Bell on ‘Prague and the transformation of American policy’ in
this volume, pp. 91-108.