ABSTRACT
In this concluding chapter, we take stock of factors that further and inhibit the formation of what we have termed a new strategic triangle in the greater transatlantic region. Recent developments make it appropriate to start with circumstances pertaining to the European Union. As this book project is being concluded, the EU is undergoing what is conventionally termed a crisis because the proposed Treaty on a European Constitution, designed – among other things – to enhance the ability of the Union to act coherently in international affairs, has been rejected in referenda in France and the Netherlands. It is the assumption in this chapter that even though the constitutional treaty has been at least temporarily rejected, this does not prevent the EU from continuing to be an important actor in the greater transatlantic region. We regard the extent to which the rejection of the constitutional treaty will stop or slow the building of what we in this book call the actorness of the EU as an empirical question.
