ABSTRACT
No relationship shaped post-Second World War American foreign policy more decisively than that with the USSR and no relationship was more important to America than that with Western Europe. Bush’s incipient New World Order begged the question of how America would transform longstanding US-USSR enmity into peaceful and cooperative coexistence and demanded that the transatlantic bargain be successfully renegotiated. The US and EU combined enjoyed economic and military preponderance and structural empowerment, having largely initiated and dominated the world’s principal multilateral forums, including the UN, NATO, G-7, IMF and GATT. Moreover, Europe was still home to America’s most natural allies given the combination of historical ties, shared values, interdependence and belief that exporting the values underpinning the North Atlantic security community best provided for developing peace and security elsewhere.
