After four years hunkered down in Iraq, the United States is thinking about leaving in a hurry. The British stayed there for decades without becoming overwhelmed by so many problems. Who exactly wants out? Are Americans just nowhere near as prepared as Europeans to endure war?
In 1945, Europe was ruined, starved and wounded near the point of death. Nevertheless, it proceeded to reinvent itself with unprecedented vigor. Europe knows how to tear herself down to rubble, and so after every major crisis, the continent has rebuilt itself from scratch. This is the continent that managed to produce an Adolf Hitler and a Pablo Picasso within the same century.
Up until 1945, Europe was dominated by a succession of great powers: The Roman Empire, Charlemagne, Charles I of Spain, Louis XIV and Napoleon of France, Queen Victoria of Britain. From one empire to the next, rivalries, alliances and wars were the name of the game.
This time, the approach proved entirely different. By 1947, too much blood had soaked European soil. Peace had to be secured through a revolutionary new strategy – and a simple one, if the nations would: work together. The new Europe was born. Forget religious crusades and ideological battles; the new era for the continent was born with an economic soul.
Fifty years after the war, one can travel from Germany to Portugal via France and Spain without showing a passport. Buy and drink Riesling, Bordeaux, Rioja and Porto wines using the same currency, the Euro. Dutch-born senior citizens have moved to seaside Malaga to enjoy their last years of life. Their daily routines include retrieving pensions from a local branch of ABN AMRO, shopping at Carrefour and driving Mercedes convertibles to the nearest golf club. I love €urope.
Thousands of European students have crossed the now-meaningless old state boundaries to spend a year studying at a foreign university through the Erasmus Programme. Dutch, German, French and Spanish youths become friends for life. Fifty years ago, they would have killed each other as loyal soldiers of rival armies. Today, tabloids scream about Eurosclerosis!
We still need a single Constitution, a European Parliament with real powers, and a more efficient administration in Brussels. But the union is making progress toward a common foreign policy, and ultimately a European army.
One might think that the U.S. model is the way ahead for Europe, and in many ways it is. But we have one important advantage. We have learned over the last 50 years that the world is a multi-polar system. It requires cooperation rather than domination. More negotiating tables, and fewer aircraft carriers.
Solving the Iraq imbroglio will take many hands – from Iraq, then from Iran, Syria, the Gulf states, Turkey, and the U.S. In similar ways the World Trade Organization will prevail only by reaching agreement between emergent regional powers like India and Brazil. Bringing peace to Afghanistan is NATO’s top priority today – thousands of miles away from the North Atlantic Ocean. Despite Francis Fukuyama’s famous proclamation, we are quite far from the end of history. And to deal with history as it continues to unfold, the world could stand from it what Europe did.
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