Indeed, however much they dislike the idea, every U.S. president has to wear the free world’s sheriff’s badge. For Europeans to think otherwise is to sleepwalk into a freezing morning shower when the next U.S. president makes the first move Europe does not like. But rather than whining endlessly, London—together with Paris and Berlin—could take the initiative and define a new Euro-Atlantic community that would join the United States, Canada and most of Europe’s nations, both in and out of the European Union. It would be called Natoland. It would stretch from the Black Sea to the Pacific coast and consist of more than a billion people in Australia, Europe, Japan, Turkey, South Korea and the United States—all living under the rule of law, with the democratic right to replace their rulers. In this community of nations, the media are free, people can travel where they want, say and write what they want, watch what they like and always have a lawyer at hand to defend them when in trouble. Natoland would be a grouping of the richest, best-educated, best-defended people in the world.
Natoland would be a political concept to replace the United States versus Europe argument of the Chirac-Bush-Schröder era. It would bring France back into NATO but allow a clearer European role, combined with Europe’s acceptance that money should be spent on the military. Natoland would defend free trade and bear down on Chinese mercantilism. It would oppose Islamist jihadist zealotry and, while respecting religion, uphold the separation of faith and politics everywhere in the world. Natoland would require a massive investment in diplomacy so that the leaders of this community of nations would speak with one voice, thus thwarting the divide-and-rule tactics of a Putin, an Ahmadinejad or a Chávez.
Making clear that North America and Europe are partners would also put to rest the outdated myth that Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus. Thirty years ago there were big differences between an aggressively capitalist America and a largely welfarist Europe. America had soldiers everywhere, but the richest states in Europe and Asia—Germany and Japan—were banned constitutionally from sending troops overseas. Today Europe has a much more open and liberal economic system. Although the United States would remain the primary military actor within Natoland, German soldiers are now stationed in Africa, Asia and the Balkans; the Japanese military is now active outside Japan. Some 200,000 French soldiers have seen action in Africa in the past 20 years defending Western interests. All told, 50,000 European fighting soldiers are now in position from the shores of Lebanon to the frontier mountains of Pakistan, and serious European countries have come to realize they can no longer leave to America the duty of defending common interests.
Natoland should also attempt a fusion of hard and soft power. NATO was born in parallel with the Marshall Plan and the creation of an aggressive, self-confident public diplomacy that challenged the ideologies of communism and leftover rightist authoritarianism. Today the military, diplomatic, economic and political spheres of the world’s free nations are not joined up, a fact that leaves space for America-firsters and Europeans who dislike Euro-Atlantic links to promote division rather than unity.
There are signs emerging of a convergence. Despite claims that neoconservative hawks control Washington, America has allowed European foreign ministers much time to try to prove that peaceful diplomacy can work in Iran. If Iran insists on a global confrontation over its nuclear ambitions, Europeans will be unable to say Washington refused to allow time for a non-military solution. Moreover, after denying for years that active diplomacy could help move the Israeli-Palestinian conflict toward resolution, President George W. Bush has changed his tone. Europe should welcome these efforts and respond by offering the next administration a new relationship.
In London, Paris and Berlin there are strong pro-American leaders. Gaullist Europe is dead. Gaullist America must not be born. The idea of a monolithic United States versus a monolithic Europe does not make sense. The values of Kant, Smith, Voltaire, Wilberforce, Rousseau, Franklin and Jefferson continue to inspire. The nations they gave birth to on both sides of the Atlantic will have to hang together. It is time to create a new unity across the Atlantic and beyond. Welcome to Natoland.
MacShane is Labour Member of Parliament for Rotherham and a former minister for Europe.
