Why Western Europe Needs the United States and NATO

The rich, industrialized, democratic, northern states, we are told, have entered a new era in their relations with one another. These states-meaning the United States, Canada, Western Europe, the Scandinavian countries, and Japan-now constitute a pluralistic security community, wherein the rule of law, not the use of force, settles disputes and conflicts that arise among its members.' War among these states is now unthinkable; and as a consequence, so it is argued, security concerns and military considerations hold little sway as these states deal with one another. Instead, international institutions, high economic interdependence, and the pacifying effects of democracy are the central determinants of state relations within this emergent security community. As exhibit number one, advocates of this view offer the Maastricht Treaty of 1991, which put Europe on the course of true political union. Two central pillars of European Political Union (EPU) are: European Monetary Union (EMU), which means a common currency and a single central bank for all member states; and a common foreign and security policy (CFSP), with the expectation that ultimately Europe will create its own defense capability. Whether these advocates hold to the supranational or the intergovernmental model of European integration, they cite both EMU and CFSP as evidence that traditional Realist analysis, which