Is US foreign policy in the process of a paradigmatic shift? After only sixty days in the White House, the Obama administration has already taken significant steps to recast Trans-Atlantic relations. Rather than maintain the traditional Foggy Bottom-Whitehall international relations axis, Washington is looking beyond London in an effort to broaden the power of NATO and usher in a new era of collective security. Partly as a result of the new US posture, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France historically announced the return of France to NATO membership last week after a forty-three year absence..
In order to appreciate the current diplomatic revolution underway between the US and Continental Europe, it is necessary to re-examine relationship of France and NATO from 1958 to 1966.
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The Prescience of Charles de Gaulle
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As the leader of the French resistance in World War II, the founder of the Fifth Republic (1958) and its first President, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) was a genuine hero and icon to his countrymen. Upon assuming power in 1958, De Gaulle immediately challenged both the raison d'etre and power structure of NATO. In a remarkably candid missive to his former comrade in arms and political peer, President Dwight Eisenhower, the French leader openly questioned the Anglo-American preponderance within the organization and suggested the inclusion of a third country (presumably France) to take a leading role in the decision-making process. Furthermore, De Gaulle envisioned NATO not only as a bulwark against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in Europe but also as a potential vehicle for collective security around the world. Eisenhower politely dismissed his ideas.
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When the US hardened its position toward Moscow and escalated the war in Vietnam, a former French colony, mainstream Europeans largely rejected the 'domino-theory' rationale and bristled at the prospect of being swept up into great power politics on distant battlefields. De Gaulle, who had prevented Britain from entering the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1963 due to its overly US-centric posture in world affairs, shattered the post-war alliance system by deciding to withdraw from NATO altogether. French citizens, always proud of their independence, were elated. Washington was exasperated.
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Over the next few years, however, De Gaulle's reservations about the US-led war in Southeast Asia were vindicated, and NATO membership was expanded greatly after the Cold War to promote security and democracy in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East (Turkey). By redefining its mission as a positive alliance rather than merely being a military counterweight to external threats (i.e. the Soviet Union) as De Gaulle had once proposed, NATO was able to survive the Cold War and successfully address regional security dilemmas (i.e. genocide in former Yugoslavia).
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Farewell Winston, Hello Charles
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Prior to being sworn into office, President Obama arranged for the bust of Winston Churchill, a post-9/11 loaned gift from Prime Minister Tony Blair to President George W. Bush, to be removed from the Oval Office. Its significance cannot be overstated. Similar to the Vietnam era, the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq fractured NATO. It immediately served to hasten the cause of radical Islamic terrorism and has thus far failed to establish a foothold for democracy in the Middle East. France and Germany, the latter a pre-eminent member of NATO, refused to support the Bush-Blair grand initiative and objected to the war on the same grounds as then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama. Echoing objections raised in Paris and Berlin, the future 44th president decried American unilateralism and the rush to war on questionable intelligence. As Obama had already tilted toward the Continent over Britain in 2003, his jettisoning of the Churchill bust should not have been surprising. Although London will still enjoy a 'special relationship' with Washington by dint of its shared language, culture and history, it will no longer be at the exclusion of other NATO members.
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Sixty years after the founding of NATO (1949), the alliance seems to be headed for a new balance of power. The European Continent, led by Germany and a revived France, stands to shape the course of NATO for the remainder of the century.
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Charles de Gaulle would be proud.
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J Roquen