ABSTRACT
European countries, for their part, were half-hearted in their criticisms of Soviet behavior in Afghanistan and Poland; during the various Arab-Israeli wars, while the USA’s attitudes ranged from pro-Israel to neutral, those of most Western European countries ranged from neutrality to hostility to the Jewish state. Some Western European demands, although their perfect reasonableness may be doubted, should nevertheless be taken more seriously for the sake of good will. There has been a certain convergence by both the USA and Western Europe toward a similar state of affairs that is neither inherently European nor American but is, rather the consequence of socio-economic “development” and is implicit in the nature of Western democratic mass politics. There is little sense in American attempts to salvage the military element of Atlanticism by putting renewed stress on conventional warfare. The development of a non-military Atlanticism is impeded by non-ideological factors as well.
