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United States has failed to hold on to the mantle of leadership. It is the European model
that seems to find more followers, and hence if Europe can collectively exert its
economic, military, and soft power resources, “old America” will feel the sharpest sting.
A final consideration is that the Bush administration will leave office in 2008, and
perhaps a new chapter in American foreign policy may emerge. Nonetheless, the damage
to the transatlantic relationship and world order may be difficult to repair.
The future of the transatlantic relationship and NATO has been profusely
prophesized. Some are ready bid adieu to the alliance and the relationship in favor of
benevolent American hegemony. Others blame the Europeans and expect their eventual
acquiescence to American methodologies and ideologies. Very few are predicting the
collapse of American hegemony. However, if the current trajectory continues, the
Europeans may well pick up the chalice of global leadership and find far more willing
followers than the United States is currently able to cobble together in its coalition of the
willing. In the final account, the United States and Europe can truly exert hegemonic and
global reach as partners. The inability to breach the ever-widening transatlantic gap will
have serious and lasting consequences for the future world order.
“If we fail to hang together we shall surely hang apart.”
-- Benjamin Franklin
Convention