Foreign Policy Program
Opinion
Summary: President Obama
makes his first trip to Europe amid
growing signs that European lead-
ers may resist his calls for help
on resolving the economic crisis,
contributing to Afghanistan, and
managing detainees from Guanta-
namo. Europeans quietly wonder
about the depth of President
Obama’s commitment to Europe.
The upcoming NATO and G-20
summits, and the debates over
Afghanistan and economic stimu-
lus, will test the commitment of
leaders from the developed and
developing worlds to the kind of
liberal internationalism neces-
sary to rekindle the prosperity
and peace in which our common
values can flourish.
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Talking transatlantic, turning toward
Asia?
by John K. Glenn and Daniel Twining*
April 1, 2009
President Obama makes his first trip to
Europe amid growing signs that Euro-
pean leaders may resist his calls for help
on resolving the economic crisis, con-
tributing to Afghanistan, and managing
detainees from Guantanamo. Just below
the surface, however, Europeans are wor-
ried that the United States may be lured
away from its historic commitment to the
trans-Atlantic alliance that defined the
20th century and toward a rising Asia that
some say will define the 21st.
Europeans quietly wonder about the
depth of President Obama’s commitment
to Europe. After all, his first-ever visits
to France and Germany took place only
last summer. British observers pored
over every diplomatic detail of Prime
Minister Gordon Brown’s recent visit to
Washington for any hint of a slip in close-
ness (and found several). It did not go
unnoticed that the first foreign leader to
visit President Obama in the White House
was Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, or
that Asia was the destination of Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton’s inaugural trip
abroad.
In fact, U.S.-European ties have enduring
strengths that will not easily be eroded
by the resurgence of Asian nations like
China and India. America and Europe
*
John K. Glenn is Director of Foreign Policy and Daniel Twining is Senior Fellow for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the German Marshall Fund of the United States
(GMF).
have the largest bilateral trade relation-
ship in the global economy. Transatlantic
perspectives on climate change are much
more closely aligned relative to those
of developing Asian nations that face
different trade-offs between growth and
the environment. Most fundamentally,
Europeans and Americans share a set of
values grounded in liberal democracy and
open societies – values that Asian pow-
ers like Japan, India, and Indonesia also
embrace, creating the possibility for East-
West convergence rather than divergence
in coming years.
Americans actually appear more Atlan-
ticist than Europeans in some respects.
Support for NATO has been declining in
recent years in Europe – but not in the
United States. Polling by the German
Marshall Fund shows that while Ameri-
can support for NATO has been around
60% since 2002, support in Germany fell
sharply from 74% to 62% in 2008 and in
Poland from 64% to 51%.
Observers often suggest that an older gen-
eration of Europeans may be giving way
to a younger generation for whom the
Atlantic alliance is less important. This
appears to be true in the United Kingdom,
where 77% of 55-64 year-olds still say
NATO is essential, compared with only
Foreign Policy Program

Opinion
55% of 18-24 year-olds. But support for NATO in France and
Germany is actually highest among 35-44 year-olds and trickles
downward among those above 65.
The fall in support for NATO in Europe partly reflects concerns
about combat. Although France will rejoin the military wing of
NATO at the summit, President Obama’s popularity in Europe
is not translating into new European troop commitments to
Afghanistan. On the contrary: Europeans fear that Washington is
“Americanizing” the mission there in ways that could undermine
NATO. Americans counter that saving NATO means winning
the war in Afghanistan -- and that a division of labor in which
Americans do much of the fighting while Europeans contribute
to reconstruction and development may be the only way forward.
The NATO summit offers an opportunity to bridge America’s
Atlantic and Pacific partnerships. NATO lacks a clear mission in
the post-Cold War world, and engagement with Australia and Ja-
pan are critical to its mission in Afghanistan. This doesn’t mean
NATO should open its membership to the rest of the world, but
it makes sense to have key global partners at the table when dis-
cussing Afghanistan and other security challenges.
In fact, America does not have a choice between Europe and
Asia. From the international financial crisis to climate change,
only coalitions spanning North America, Europe, and Asia can
contribute to successful solutions. The good news is that unlike
during the Cold War, when weak allies in Europe and Asia com-
pelled America to assume unprecedented global commitments,
today strong partners in the European Union and Asia mean it is
possible to build coalitions capable of tackling these cross-cutting
challenges.
Given its global position and interests, the United States is
well-placed to serve as a convening power and a bridge between
nations across these diverse regions. At the same time, securing
a world order where liberal values can flourish will require close
cooperation between the United States and Europe in vesting
countries like China as responsible stewards of the global com-
mons on which we all depend.
It won’t be easy. The NATO and G-20 summits, and the debates
over Afghanistan and economic stimulus, will test the commit-
ment of leaders from the developed and developing worlds to
the kind of liberal internationalism necessary to rekindle the
prosperity and peace in which our common values can flourish.
John K. Glenn, Director of Foreign Policy, German Marshall
Fund of the United States
Dr. John K. Glenn joined the German Marshall Fund in 2004 as direc-
tor of foreign policy, responsible for Transatlantic Trends, an annual
survey of foreign policy attitudes in the United States and Europe, and
the primary author of the Key Findings Report. He is also a visiting
scholar at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
of The Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to GMF, Dr. Glenn
was executive director of the Council for European Studies, the leading
American professional association for the study of Europe in the social
sciences and humanities. He is a frequent commentator on internation-
al affairs, having appeared on CNN International, CNN’s Insight, BBC
World News, Reuters Financial Network, BBC World Service, Voice of
America’s FOCUS, Deutsche Welle, and NPR’s Marketplace.
Daniel Twining, Senior Fellow for Asia, German Marshall
Fund of the United States
Daniel Twining is Senior Fellow for Asia at the German Marshall
Fund of the United States (GMF). During the Bush administration,
he served as a member of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s policy
planning staff, with responsibility for South Asia and regional issues
in East Asia. He previously worked for over a decade for Senator John
McCain, including as his Foreign Policy Advisor in the United States
Senate. Dan has also been the Fulbright/Oxford Scholar at Oxford
University, a Transatlantic Fellow and director of foreign policy at
GMF, and a staff member of the United States Trade Representative.
His work on South and East Asia and U.S. foreign policy has been pub-
lished in newspapers, magazines, and peer-reviewed academic journals
in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
About GMF
The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a
nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution
dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding
between the United States and Europe. GMF does this by supporting
individuals and institutions working on transatlantic issues, by
convening leaders to discuss the most pressing transatlantic themes,
and by examining ways in which transatlantic cooperation can
address a variety of global policy challenges. In addition, GMF
supports a number of initiatives to strengthen democracies. Founded
in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to
Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both
sides of the Atlantic. In addition to its headquarters in Washington,
DC, GMF has seven offices in Europe: Berlin, Bratislava, Paris, Brussels,
Belgrade, Ankara, and Bucharest.