Remarks on the Future of European Security
By Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/136273.htm 
Reviewed by James L. Abrahamson, Contributing Editor

In her recent speech at France’s L’Ecole Militaire, Secretary Clinton sought to reassure Europeans who have begun to doubt “the depth of the United States commitment to European security” and come to believe that the “Obama Administration is so focused on foreign policy challenges elsewhere in the world that Europe has receded in [America’s] list of priorities.”

Hers was no easy assignment. In the past year her president had returned to the British the bust of Winston Churchill that once rested in the White House, and he later cancelled Czech and Polish missile defense sites, without first advising their leaders. President Obama also announced that he would not attend the regular U.S and European Union meeting in May.

Secretary Clinton offered six propositions meant to support the notion that “European security remains an anchor of U.S. foreign and security policy.” Calling attention, for example, to the American commitment to climate change, stability in Afghanistan, countering Iran’s nuclear ambitions, revitalizing the global economy, and promoting Western values, she sought to reassure the doubters. Europe, she said, was indivisible.

Secretary Clinton reaffirmed the American commitment to NATO and the presence of U.S. troops in Europe. She called for modernization of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and similar agreements. She reiterated the president’s commitment to a world “free of the fear of nuclear destruction,” noting the renegotiation of the START Treaty. She closed with a call for a joint American-European effort to oppose global governments that abuse their populations and to promote human rights and promotion of democracy and prosperity abroad. She was not so ungracious to suggest that Europe possessed the population, wealth, and technological capacity to both defend itself and make a larger commitment to building a better and safer world—if it would.