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On Defense, France Bites the Bullet, But Avoids Strategic Insolvency May 7, 2013
Iceland’s Recovery Saga Presents Opportunities for Brussels, Washington—and Beijing May 6, 2013
Which Way Forward for Europe’s Hybrid Regimes? May 2, 2013
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GMF celebrates its 40 year history and Founder and Chairman, Dr. Guido Goldman at Gala Dinner May 09, 2013 / Washington, DCGMF held a celebratory gala dinner at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, Wednesday May 8.
In this podcast, GMF Vice President of Programs Ivan Vejvoda discusses last month's historic agreement to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Anchor Elaine Reyes speaks with Andrew Small, Transatlantic Fellow of the Asia Program for the German Marshall Fund, about Beijing's potential role in brokering peace between Israel and Palestine
A U.N. Seat for Europe
February 20, 2005 / Constanze Stelzenmueller
New York Times
What do Europeans want from the United States? As President Bush prepares for his first trip to Europe since his reelection -- a five-day swing through Belgium, Germany and Slovakia -- the Op-Ed page asked a variety of Europeans to name the single most important thing Mr. Bush could do to reinvigorate trans-Atlantic relations.
THE most dramatic gesture President Bush could make during his visit to Europe is this: Call for a United Nations Security Council that has a single European seat.
It’s a no-brainer, Mr. President. It would get more attention for your basic message -- that Washington is now willing to work with Europe as a whole -- than anything else you could possibly say. It would also make you look more European than the Europeans; no mean feat in itself. As you know, the British and the French have one seat each (because they won World War II, too, and have nuclear arms), but have not been amenable to suggestions that they should step down in favor of a seat that rotates among all European member states. (Which is why the Germans now want one as well.) It would even make you look more United Nations-friendly than the Europeans. After all, they’ve been complaining that the United States doesn’t take the United Nations seriously enough. This tells them they’re the ones holding up reform by not being able to take turns.
Here’s a neat final twist: last weekend Chancellor Gerhard Schroder of Germany nearly torpedoed your secretary of state’s efforts at rapprochement when he suggested that a panel of experts should re-examine the architecture of our collective institutions, including NATO. If you call for a single European seat at the United Nations, you’ll be taking him at his word. And preventing a German seat.
Constanze Stelzenmuller is an editor for Die Zeit.
