EU vs US

[namkcuR]

So I was talking with my dad the other day, and he brought up this idea, an opinion of his:

Basically what he says is that he thinks that the European Union, gradually and eventually, will grow to have more economic clout globally than the U.S., and that eventually, not right away but not that long of a time from now(relatively speaking), the balance of power in the world will transfer back to Europe. That for all intents and purposes, the EU will end up being essentially the United States Of Europe. That kind of thing.

I was just curious, do any of you agree with this line of thinking? What do you think of it?

 

[A_Wanderer]

You simply cannot string a bunch of middle powers and poor countries with language and cultural barriers together and expect it to become equivalent to a cohesive nation with a large economy and consumer base.

the US defence of Europe from the Soviet Union during the latter 20th Century really allowed for Western Europe to emerge from the war and rebuild without having drastic worries about defence spending, that saved money was poured into social spending and it allowed the creation of the welfare state across the board. Then insulated from the real world Europe was able to get through the 70's and 80's without the neo-liberal policies that were adopted elsewhere ~ it will be paying the price for that failure.

The US should just get it's military bases out of Western Europe and go furthur East rather than continuing to stay where they are not wanted serving serve lukewarm alliances, let the Europeans put together their own rapid reaction forces and pay for their own millitaries ~ or just not have them for that matter. Why should the US still be there? Europeans can be left too handle European problems on their own sweet time ~ got trouble in the Balkans then leave it to an EU RDF to manage.

Let Europe go about it's own business on it's own, step up to the plate and try to prove to the world that having aging populations, low birth rates and high taxes is the path to global sucess rather than a form of national suicide. They should be free to elect their left wing governments and rally against "Anglo-American capitalism". Sign defence and mutual cooperation pacts with whomever they want to, legitimise whichever terrorist organisations that they want too (the moves with Hamas are an example of this) and look out for European interests abroad.The Cold War is over, it is time that Europe was cut loose.

I still think that the future will be led by the Anglosphere; the nations that are inheritors of the British Empires liberal traditions moving forward today: that is not saying that power will permanantly be with the US in a unipolar world, that balance will shift over time, but probably not towards Europe.

 

[Angela Harlem]

It would seem that the EU is not seeking to be the power the US is. It also seems the nations in the EU are still not ready, nor never really planned to, give up their identities and unite in more than an economical sense.

 

[verte76]

No, I don't think the EU wants to be a great big superpower. It mainly seems to me that they want to be prosperous, not powerful. You had that big time vote against the Constutition in France and the Netherlands. If they were really into collective power they would have approved the thing.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Oh but the EU Constitution does not make the frankenreich, just look at all the pundits explaining how the Franco-German alliance against US unilateralism demonstrated a rising united Europe. Now that the consitution has been sunk all that talk is gone and it is painfully obvious now never occured in their collective memory.

 

[DrTeeth]

I've never (nor have I ever met anyone who) thought the European countries' reactions to American unilateralism was evidence of a stronger and rising EU but I do think it underlined the need for one.

As for the future, who can tell really? Chances are both the US and the EU are going to be trailing behind the Asian economies in the future. I think at least the EU is trying, and has a good plan, to strengthen its economic position, if only we had more Blairs and less Chiracs.

 

[nbcrusader]

While there may be an increase in influence of the collective countries, the EU will never act as one body. It might be good to have a constitution in place first.