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As always the interview is available for download as a Word-document on the final page (p. 10)
FOURTH QUARTER 2003: |
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10:10
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This is the beginning
Finally, I have a two-part question. First, what do you think it will take to persuade the European population that terrorism is a threat so they're going to sacrifice money and attention on the issue? And secondly, trying to build this connection between foreign and domestic policy in terms of fighting terrorism: have we just seen the beginning of that, and is that going to be influential in the next 5-10-15 years?
Trying to build this connection between foreign and domestic policy in terms of fighting terrorism: have we just seen the beginning of that, and is that going to be influential in the next 5-10-15 years?
DH: Oh, this will continue. This is the beginning - I would hope - of a very concerted effort, not just to deal with terrorism but to confront terrorists drawing on weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism itself only part of challenge. The challenge posed by terrorism joined to weapons of mass destruction is a much larger one. In response to this challenge, our alliance needs to reorder its priorities:
And they would be?
DH: 1] First there
is the external aspect. The area of the Greater Middle-East, or Greater
Southwest Asia, if you will, is the area from which most tensions of this
world emanate. We have to seriously work together, and with partners in the
countries involved, to transform and modernize that entire region. Not pieces
of it, but the entire area stretching from Morocco to India.
2] Second, the reverse side of this agenda is that the threats that emanate
from the Greater Middle East threaten the European homeland is new ways. This
means that transatlantic cooperation in the realm of "homeland security," or
if you prefer, 'civil protection', is the new internal strategic challenge for
the transatlantic partnership. This challenge opens new opportunities for
US-EU co-operation as well as new tasks for NATO. In fact, US-EU cooperation
is perhaps the most relevant transatlantic link in this broad field -- and
here you find that transatlantic cooperation is also promoting deeper European
integration, for instance in the areas of justice and home affairs, or
transportation policies. It is only because of September 11th, and
the pressures on more effective US-EU cooperation that followed, that we have
a European arrest-warrant now.
So despite apparent differences and disagreements, co-ordination is increasing?
DH: A variety of new possibilities have emerged because of the need to be more effective together in confronting these post-911 challenges. The Container Security Initiative, which was discussed at the Conference [on Homeland Security, in Copenhagen], resulted from US pressure, but is now going to transform the way European and American companies and governments operate. The new US effort to construct a 'virtual border of information’ around the entire transatlantic community goes to the heart of US-EU differences over data privacy and visa information. But we are likely to come out of these debates with a more coherent system of transparency and protection across the Atlantic -- all the way from Estonia to Honolulu. These are going to be new ways of working - we're just starting to appreciate the changes likely to come.
But of course in Europe, as you've mentioned, it is a fight between the EU's expansion - including Eastern Europe in the EU - and then that agenda. Where they are not seen as complementary but opposing.
DH: Well, I think some of that is artificial, obviously. It is clearly in the American interest to have a united Europe. But it is clearly in Europe's interest not to define its identity in opposition to the United States. I think one thing the Iraq debate showed, is that any effort by some Europeans to define Europe as opposed to America will fail. An American administration will use it's influence to disrupt that effort in Europe - and with success. And that is not in Europe's interest - our interest is to be working on this together.
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Illustrationsfoto: The White House (Tina Hager)
Portrætfoto: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
