Abstract
On the eve of its long-heralded unification, Europe has been deeply divided. Less by the merits of the Iraqi crisis per se than by the perceptions of and policies toward American power. The transatlantic divide became an intra-European one with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe tipping the balance in favor of the American leadership. The letter entitled “United We Stand,”1 a British-Spanish initiative signed by the leaders of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, became the symbol of that divide. It stressed the primacy of the “transatlantic bond guaranteeing our freedom.” It was followed on February 5 by the letter of the “Vilnius Ten” (from Albania to Estonia) pledging their readiness to contribute to an international coalition to enforce the disarmament of Iraq.2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
The letter was signed by five leaders representing member states of the E.U. (Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Denmark) and three candidate countries: Poland (Leszek Miller), Hungary (Peter Medgyessy), and the Czech Republic (Vaclav Havel). The Wall Street Journal, January 30, 2003.
See Timothy Garton Ash, “Anti-Europeanism in America,” in The New York Review of Books, February 13, 2003, pp. 32–34.
Thus, the American edition of a 1980s study of the phenomenon was published under the title, The Rise and Fall of Anti-Americanism, edited by D. Lacorne, J. Rupnik, and M-F. Toinet, (New York: St Martin’s, 1990) and would now have to be revised as “the rise and fall and the rise again ...”
H. Védrine (dialogue avec Dominique Moïsi), Les cartes de la France à l’heure de la mondialisation (Paris: Fayard, 2000), p. 72.
Michel Albert, Capitalisme contre capitalisme (Paris: Seuil, 1991).
The Pew Global Attitudes Project, View of a Changing World, June 2003, The Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C., p. 71.
See, in particular, his 1994 essay “Politics and Conscience” published in Vaclav Havel, Essais politiques (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1989), pp. 221–248. In a recent interview, he spoke of a “totalitarianism of consumption” associated with globalization.
Inter view with J. Rupnik, Politique Internationale (winter 2003), p. 22.
Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), p. 37.
“Car la francophobie, ça existe. C’est la médiocrité planétaire voulant se venger de la suprématie culturelle française qui a duré des siècles. Ou bien, peut être, est-ce, au-delà de notre continent, une forme de rejet de l’Europe.” Milan Kundera as cited in Paris-Prague; les intellectuels en Europe, edited by F. Mitterrand and V Havel (Prague: Institut Français, 1994), p. 94.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2005 Tony Judt and Denis Lacorne
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rupnik, J. (2005). America’s Best Friends in Europe: East-Central European Perceptions and Policies toward the United States. In: Judt, T., Lacorne, D. (eds) With Us or Against Us. The CERI Series in International Relations and Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980854_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980854_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-53135-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-8085-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)