A Moment of Opportunity for Europe –
New Leadership in Transatlantic Relations

C·A·P organizes "Editors' Roundtable" at Chatham House

11.06.2007 · Improving Responsiveness

On May 31st and June 1st 2007 the Center for Applied Policy Research invited editors from leading journals on international and foreign affairs from Europe and the United States to the 7th Transatlantic Editors' Roundtable at Chatham House in London.

The German Ambassador to the UK, Wolfgang Ischinger, and Josef Janning, Deputy Director of the C·A·P.

During the two-day conference around 40 participants discussed the topic of "New Leadership, New Challenges: Global Security and the Middle East" with key experts and policy makers. Europe and the United States are undergoing great changes in political leadership: There are structural changes in the European leadership landscape with the governments in Italy, Germany and France being relatively new in office. Imminent elections in Britain will soon result in new leadership, too. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Bush-Administration has entered its last two years in office and faces the difficult task of achieving a compromise with a democratic majority in the U.S.-Congress. In addition, the American Presidential campaign for 2008 is already underway with a list of various early runners for the White House. This new transatlantic leadership faces a situation of increasing instability in the Middle East, which will remain the most precarious challenge to international order for the next years.

Josef Janning, Marc Otte (EU Special Representative to Middle East) and Giles Merritt (Editor Europe's World).

The roundtable was kicked off at Chatham House by highlighting the basic changes in the landscape of European leadership with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, the recently elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and a new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown soon being in office. These changes in political leadership do not only stand for alteration in national politics, they could also lead to great changes on an international level, in particular with regard to the rising number of conflict areas in the world, which are on the agenda of European governments. The oncoming Presidential elections in the United States could impede a new transatlantic project for conflict resolution in states like Iran, Iraq, and Ukraine, since there is a strong temptation on the European side to wait until the next U.S. president will be in office. Even though many challenges for the transatlantic partnership are commonly recognised, the way to think about them is different. The future of the transatlantic partnership will depend on how the European leadership uses the next two years; there is a window of opportunity for Europe until the next U.S. administration will be able to work effectively in 2009. But until now, Europeans were calculating what to do and how to do it and what to wait for. Nevertheless, trouble spots in the world, e.g. the Middle East, are going to worsen if the transatlantic partners do not take the opportunity to act with discretion. The transatlantic partners should act immediately in the Middle East because the fronts are interwoven and there is an imminent danger that this region could develop a momentum of its own.

In the subsequent discussion, the main field of interest was the role of Iraq and Afghanistan as potential bridges for the transatlantic friendship as well as the different transatlantic perception of Turkey. While the United States try to handle business with Turkey in a strategic way, the European Union approaches Turkey from a more cultural perspective. Josef Janning, Deputy Director of the Center for Applied Policy Research, concluded that EU and Turkey are speaking to each other without understanding each other.

Prof. Juan Cole (University of Michigan), Prof. Gerd Nonneman (University of Exeter).

The second panel revisited the Middle East topic by setting the focus on the most important developments in the region. The dominance of non-state and cross-state actors in the Middle East was stressed. Islamistic movements are very diverse and changeable. A lot of them are nationalistic local organizations like Hamas and Hisbollah, a fact that the European Union has underestimated during the last years. Important background information on religion supported the understanding of why nationalism in the Middle East, especially in Iran, should be deeply taken into account in further EU Middle East operations. Concerning the dealing of the EU with the Middle East, a change of attitudes in the Middle East policy can be stated. But the Europeans still have to strengthen their efforts in the Middle East peace process, even though a lot of ideas were developed on the European side. The Middle East Peace Quartet is seen as an opportunity for Europe to be a strategic player. The Europeans should move on from conflict to crisis management and integrate the Middle Eastern states themselves in order to give them a chance to make a conflict resolution on their own.

Giles Merritt (Editor, Europe's World), Robin Niblett (Director, Chatham House), Sir Mark Malloch Brown (Vice-Chairman, Soros Fund Management LLC and Open Society Institute and Former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations).

During the dinner at the "In and Out Club" on St James's Square, Sir Mark Malloch Brown KPMG, former Vice-President at the World Bank and former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of UNDP, spoke about the models of global order.

Dr. Nicola Pedde (Editor Journal of Middle Eastern Geopolitics), Michael A. Gayle, Rosemary Hollis (Director of Research, Chatham House).

The second day of the conference started with a close look at an urgent conflict area in the world: the U.S.-Iranian relations. The Nuclear issue will be decisive in the next 18 months. The recent talks between the United States and Iran were the first talks in decades and may lead to get Iran more involved in the Middle East peace process.

The most important step for solving the Middle East conflict areas would be a look inside the Iranian system. The previous democratic structure in Iran has changed since 2005, because of the development of the nuclear program and the corresponding question of who is and who is not interested in the nuclear enrichment in and outside Iran? The answer will pave the way for further stability of the Iranian system. The opposition of Neo-Reformists who seek to open the country towards the U.S. and restart a process of democratization and the Neo-Pragmatists caused a clash in the "inner circle" of the Iranian government, which could damage the coalition. Ahmadinedschad has lost a lot of support, especially from the intellectual radicals. It seems that there are still people in Iran who want to prevent any aggression against other states. This could be an opportunity for the Western world to find a solution for a conflict area, which could otherwise produce more damage than the Western countries are able to stand.

The fourth panel dealt with the topic of "Nuclear proliferation and international order". The issue of nuclear proliferation has to be considered in two ways. On the one hand, nuclear proliferation is a danger for the world order, but does not just affect it, since on the other hand it offers an opportunity to bring the world together. Therefore, the initial question is how proliferation itself is affected by the world system. As regards this subject two issues should be considered as crucial. First, the Western states should not suspend their policy contacts with potential nuclear regimes in the Middle East since this could be counterproductive with regard to their whole Middle East policy and thus for the question of non-proliferation. Second, the five nuclear weapon states should reconsider their own logic of non-proliferation while insisting to remain the only nuclear weapon states worldwide. Supporting this topic, the opinion was pronounced that we may become oversensitive about the non-proliferation question. Nuclear regimes in the Middle East should not be seen only as a threat, but as a change of world order. Today's international nuclear order is built on our own requirements. Of greater importance would be the idea of the direction of smaller nuclear threats. Therefore, treaties are better than debates.

The thought stimulating and very successful Editors´ Roundtable ended with lunch with the German Ambassador to the court of St. James, H.E. Wolfgang Ischinger. In the venerable dinning hall of the Ambassador's residence, Germany's top diplomat shared his views and experiences on Germany's role and interest in today's world politics with the group.

Among the speakers were Dr Ronald D. Asmus, director of the GMF office in Brussels, Professor Harald Müller, Director of the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt (Main), EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Marc Otte, Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, and William Walker, Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews.

Josef Janning, Ron Asmus (Director GMF Brussels), John Glenn (Director GMF Washington) and Gary Rosen (Editor Commentary).

The network of cooperation among American and European foreign policy journals was initiated by the Center for Applied Policy Research in 1998 and has since then become an excellent forum to share ideas on transatlantic relations and international affairs as well as exchange experiences of foreign policy journals. This year's meeting, which is still a unique event of its kind, was organized in cooperation with the journals International Affairs and The World Today, based at The Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House. Among the participating journals were Commentary, Current History, Journal of Democracy, ORBIS: A Journal of World Affairs, The National Interest, and The Washington Quarterly from the USA as well as Europe's World, Foreign Policy Espana, The International Spectator, Journal of Middle Eastern Geopolitics, Le Monde Diplomatique, Perspectives, Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs, Survival, Review of International Studies, German Review of the United Nations, and WeltTrends from Europe.

The Editors' Roundtable is part of the Program Improving Responsiveness at the C·A·P, which is kindly supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The GMF is a nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe.

Alex Lennon (Editor The Washington Quarterly), Gary Rosen (Editor Commentary).

Downloads

List of participants

Agenda

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