A Year with George W. Bush

With the exception of the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who believed he finally had a conservative colleague on the world stage, only Tony Blair, the non-partisan British Social Democrat, jumped at the opportunity to visit the newly elected American president and secure British-American ties.

Feared isolationism

Other European leaders remained rather distanced. In their eyes Bush junior was nothing more than a provincial, internationally inexperienced politician from one of the most conservative US states, Texas. They were certain that Bush would introduce a new era of isolationism. In terms of trade they expected to go head to head with him on issues of protectionism.

In foreign affairs they saw Bush as a vehement proponent of the national missile defense initiative, and equated him with his hardliner predecessor Ronald Reagan. Beyond the diplomatic "business as usual" mentality, the majority of European statesmen considered the Texan an unpolished, ignorant bore compared to the charming and personable Bill Clinton. And even worse, Bush didn’t seem to care about Europe.

Controversial defense program

Then Junior came to Europe. It wasn’t his first official visit, but at least it was within the first few months of office. He started his tour in Spain – an unusual place to start, but then again he had strong ties to the Hispanic community in the US – and moved on to Brussels for a NATO summit.

At every step of the way Bush energetically presented his view of the world. He repeatedly described the dangers confronting the West from so-called rogue states and stressed that the days of conventional conflict were long gone. And because of these threats, he was in favor of the national missile defense system (NMD), which by the way, he explained, could be expanded to include Europe.

The Europeans were resistant to such talks. They listened, but they remained opposed to the NMD. Of all the leaders, French resident Jacques Chirac was the most adamant anti-Bush spokesperson. Only Aznar and the newly elected Silvio Berlusconi from Italy were on Bush’s side. The NATO summit ended on a bitter note. The participants new that they would no longer agree on the issue. They criticized the American snobbery, the presumptuous stance of the superpower that risked bring the world into new and dangerous confrontations, especially with regard to Russia.

Visible tensions

The destructive atmosphere of the NATO summit overshadowed the next day’s EU-America summit in Göteborg, Sweden. The tension was so thick it was visible, even when both sides tried their hardest to defuse it. But it flared up again in the debate over the European import embargo on hormone treated meat from the US or the discussion on tax abatements for US firms established solely for export production, and both sides failed to find a common position for the upcoming WTO negotiations.

Only on his trips to the EU border states of Poland and Slovenia, which Bush clumsily mistook for Slovakia, was the new US president received as well as he had been in Spain.

The Europeans had succeeded in conveying a coolly calculated diplomatic lesson: "not with us you don’t", they warned Junior. And at that Europe and America turned their backs on one another.

September 11, the day that changed the world

That was then, and this is now – the post September 11 world. Everything changed on the world stage after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Suddenly, the Europeans were racing to declare their solidarity with the US. For the first time in their history, Europe called for the convening of a special summit.

The Europeans were ready to stand on the side of the US and George W. Bush in the fight against terrorism. They supported NATO and called for the invoking of Article 5 on collective defense. Politically and symbolically they pledged their unrestricted solidarity to their transatlantic ally.

In practical terms, however, the US acted alone: the only remaining superpower doesn’t need to rely on NATO or the EU to fight terrorism. Even the resolute and determined British government could only offer a symbolic military force to assist the US.

Nonetheless, the ties between the US and Europe have improved dramatically. And when the US opened up its anti-terror coalition to include Russia, the whole world constellation changed. Since September 11, new alliances have arisen, in NATO for instance, where Russia is now considered a pseudo-ally.

As for the initial reserve and skepticism against George W. Bush, hardly a trace of it remains. Osama bin Laden and his al-Queda network have forced the transatlantic partners closer together, closer than anyone would have expected a year ago.