A New Strategy for Europe

Here's a policy approach to Europe...just a proposal, and my opinions entirely--but offered up in the "For-What-it's-Worth category:

1. Recommend that the United States adopt a formal strategy of Integration and Cooperation in Europe, and create a combined Transatlantic Union as the policy vehicle to achieve it.

2. A Three Dimensional Approach for Europe: Forging a national strategy for Europe should incorporate a systemic approach to three broad policy areas: economic development, political stability, and regional security. Several fundamental reforms should drive the effort:

a. Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA): Sustainable economic development for the east European states is dependent on the proliferation of open markets, private investment, adn the progress of privatization throughout the region. U.S. policy can best influence this process through the formation of a single market, or TAFTA.
b. Transatlantic Security Organization (TASO): In the wake of a significantly diminished military threat in Europe, and with no antagonist state to collectively defend against, a more appropriate security architecture for the Atlantic community is one that can provide collective security for the region under an alternative construct to NATO.
c. A Mediating Institution for the Transatlantic: As Europe's potential for further territorial and ethnic conflict increases, the need for a central mediating institution has become more acute. Preventative diplomacy is the foundational tenet of the Transatlantic Cooperation Council (TACC).

3. Anticipated Objections/Rebuttal.

a. Transatlantic Free Trade Area: With nearly 20 million people unemployed, and fearing the potential loss of even more jobs at home, West European nations are reluctant to open their markets to East European imports.

Intial entry nations into TAFT would enjoy enhanced Transatlantic Union loan benefits. Those nations that choose to abstain from membership may join later, when the long-term benefits of that trade relationship are more apparent. U.S. domestic concerns will closely approximate those articulated durng the NAFTA debate.

b. Transatlantic Security Organization: The prohibitive cost of collective security and the loss of discretionary intervention authority will be the primary objections to this framework. Further concerns will be articulated over the integration of Russia.

Intervening too late is far more costly than an intervention that is mandated to occur in the early stages of a crisis. Russian cooperation would be better regulated with the incentive/disincentive program provided by TASO.

c. Transatlantic Cooperation Council: Formalizing the Atlantic community's political wing would involve consolidating the political ministries of the OSCE and EU. Germany and France may fram this as a U.S. attempt to expand its influence in Europe at their expense.

This proposition should be framed in the context of creating a new, unified relationship where all parties would ultimately benefit.

4. Conclusion. Today, still, we find two distinct Europes--Western and Eastern--divided by history and segregated by circumstance as if they were separate continents unto themselves. To have relevance, our efforts should focus on reinventing existing institutions and entrenched policies. To have resonance, any policies we invoke will require a longer vision for Europe. This vision can be realized by establishing a policy of Integration and Cooperation in Europe, and by reinventing existing institutions and merging them to form a Transatlantic Union.