The Foreign Service Journal, April 2017

tions. Something more in the way of justification than the usual clichés about solidarity of “free world interests” is now required in order to present a credible position. Europeans are currently searching for pragmatic solutions to the problems that beset them, and American fundamentalism is considerably less attractive than it was at a time when continental affairs were hopelessly and uncompromisingly entangled in a maze of mutual recriminations. A natural result of the lessened receptivity toward the American point of view onmany policy issues is a growing lack of meaningful dialogue between the United States and its European allies. When American spokesmen try tomake a case for concerted action on Cuba or Vietnam, such appeals find no response in countries to which they are at best matters of secondary concern. Stay Ahead of History Evenmore, there is in Europe a rising uneasiness over the lack of U.S. flexibility in dealing with somany vital questions. In this sense, General de Gaulle might be considered as the spokesman of a growing body of as yet largely inarticulate opinion inmost European states which is disturbed over the course of events and favors the development of less binding associations with American power. The future Europe may or may not conform to General de Gaulle’s vision of a collection of nation-states living in harmony from the Atlantic to the Urals. One thing can, however, now be said with certainty: the power of both the United States and the Soviet Union to influence the actions of individual countries on the continent and tomake them conform to their respective models is rapidly decreasing. It is up to the United States to recognize this change and to accept it gracefully. There is a lack of reality evident in waiting for certain uncomfortable phenomena to disappear from the scene so that one may return to the status quo ante. Once a country puts itself in this position it becomes retrograde and falls behind the course of events. In the long run, this constitutes a situation which no amount of power can hope to rectify. If the United States is to avoid such an entrapment, it must keep pace with history or, better still, stay a little ahead of it. n THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2017 41 FOREIGN SERVICE