Posted on 01/29/2010 4:46:35 PM PST by bruinbirdman
This year, the 27-nation European Union was supposed to come of age as an actor on the world stage, bolstered by the Lisbon Treaty, which streamlines the EU's cumbersome institutions. Instead, Europe is starting to look like the loser in a new geopolitical order dominated by the U.S. and emerging powers led by China.
When the world's policy and economic elite gather Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum, much of the talk will be about the rise of a "G-2" world where the U.S. and China are the most important players.
A growing number of European policymakers and analysts say the EU's international influence may have peaked thanks to a combination of political divisions and poor long-term prospects for its economy.
"The EU's attempts to be a coherent international actor seem to be decreasingly effective," says Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a pro-EU London think tank.
Europe's hope of playing a leading role in a multipolar world got a cold shower in Copenhagen last month, at the United Nations-sponsored talks on climate change. EU countries view themselves as leaders on the issue.
But no Europeans were invited when U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held the make-or-break meeting on Dec. 18 that brokered the modest Copenhagen accord. The Chinese invited the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa.
That meeting and Europe's absence was "the seminal image of 2009," says a senior European diplomat. "It was a signal that we are becoming more and more marginalized and peripheral" in the new balance of global power, he says.
EU countries haven't helped their own cause lately. The Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force in December after eight years of struggle, was meant to make the EU a more coherent actor,
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
As for the coming "G-2" it might be China and India, not China and US.
I do not believe American dominance can be upstaged that easily. It’ll be the sole superpower for multiple centuries from today, before anyone comes even half as close.
Not if we continue on the present course. The attitudes that result in the “American spirit” are fast disappearing in this land, and you can blame state-controlled “progressive” education for much of it.
Not if China decides to call in the loan.
| It’ll be the sole superpower for multiple centuries from today
Seriously, I think you're kidding yourself. With a billion individuals, China has more smart people than we have people. So does India. To my knowledge, neither country deliberately stifles the math and science education of its male children so as to keep girls at parity in those subjects. The day will come when those two countries are out-innovating us by large margins. |
The best thing the EU did for itself was to get the US into the WTO. Now when we are pissed, we can’t flex our trade muscle without getting charged in the WTO.
The pre-WTO days were better, do as we say or stop sending us your stuff. You need us more than we need you. And then we would win on the trade issue. Now, we have Euro homers in charge at the WTO who make Russian ice skating judges look honest.
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Be careful, we'll come after you if you're wrong.