Paper Titles & Abstracts

This paper aims at examining the recent evolution of the transatlantic relations under the Obama Administration, especially in the light of the new US security strategy of balance shift to the Asian-Pacific region announced in the latest Pentagon Strategic Review in January 2012. Contrary to the concerns expressed by some EU member states and observers regarding this strategy seen as disengagement of the US from Europe, we develop an alternative two-fold argument. On the one hand, the US strategic pivot to Asia is not surprising and should have been foreseen by the EU for at least three reasons. First, in the context of the global economic crisis the growing US public debt brought about the Budget Control Act (BCA) voted by the Congress in November 2011. The BCA imposes huge cuts on the US defence budget, as well as the retreat of 10,000 American soldiers from Europe. The second reason refers to the decreasing EU member states' defence spending leading to the transformation of NATO into "a two-tiered alliance" split between the "soft" and the "hard" states as put by former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. The third reason stems from the changing perceptions about the global balance of power. According to some US think tanks surveys, the majority of Americans consider that Asia, and especially China, have become central to US interests, thus replacing Europe. On the other hand, building on Shapiro and Witney's concept of "Post-American Europe" that could no longer outsource its security to America, we argue that Washington's strategic downgrade of Europe could actually help strengthen the EU foreign and defence policy by pushing the EU to act not only as a civilian actor, but also as a "hard power" actor.