Obama Turns to Europe?
"Aspreading financial crisis has accomplished what tradition, habits of alliance management and shared security concerns could not: It has given Europe a central place in President Obama's view of global affairs," writes Jim Hoagland in The Washington Post:
As described by U.S. officials, the turn to a German-led Europe as America's most effective foreign partner has come not from presidential conviction but from bitter experience. Openings to China and India have produced little. Relations with Russia, if improved, remain quixotic. And Obama now plays defense on the Middle East in this season of Arab revolt. Early enthusiasm for what was once called a new world order has ebbed into a new appreciation of the tried-and-true. Instead of envisioning a Group of Two directorate of the United States and China, Obama today hopes to develop a joint American-European approach to Beijing.
Sounds good, but the article does not convince me that it will happen.
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