A New American Defensive Doctrine for Europe?

For some years, there has been a widening demand for greater sense of proportion in US world policies-an aspect of the current scene that is bound to be further accentuated in the period immediately ahead. Achieving more symmetry would require a restatement of fundamental national aims and a concomitant reappraisal of the commitments and sacrifices necessary on their behalf. Anything like a single doctrine of global application will find it difficult to secure a consensus within the national polity and may indeed prove unattainable. On the other hand, demarcation of American concerns within specific geographic or politically defined areas may prove more feasible. With respect to such limited areas, the most favorable prospect for agreement would seem to involve Europe. Only a little over 30 years ago the world was still thought of as Europe-centered. Since then we have lived in the American age, but Europe has remained at the hub of world affairs in the sense that bipolar confrontation of the superpowers focuses on the heart of that continent. For the United States it represents the sole area outside of North America where its fate could conceivably be determined in short order. In consequence, though the immediate attention of American policymakers may shift around the world in accord with the incidence of crisis, Europe always remains the most preemptive claimant on their attention. Published in Parameters, v6 n1 p18-34, 1976.