Where is Europe?

Abstract

The world requires global solutions. What is the right approach? Since the end of the Bush administration there has been an international debate on what kind of world will emerge. Where is Europe in this debate? Among American academics Europe plays only a marginal role. Their main concerns are the decline of America and the rise of China. Europe is not considered to be a major power factor in the new world. The "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" (TTIP) introduced a new element into the debate, however. For liberal internationalists the TTIP could provide a stable basis for market economies and liberal democracies to strengthen their global influence. Such an agreement could help to enlarge their standards to the emerging powers. On the one hand, it would pull them into the new system. On the other hand, it would push them towards it. The US and Europe would create an economic and politically unifying force that would integrate the new emerging actors such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and other established economic powers. Geo-strategists and Realists would argue that closer US - European ties, the TIPP together with the "Transpacific Partnership" (TPP), would enhance the West's leverage with China.