Gulfstream: 20 November 2004

Why European support for the US has waned (for some reason described in terms of “legitimacy”). “U.S. legitimacy among Europeans rested on three pillars, all based on the existence of the Soviet communist empire. The sturdiest pillar was Europe’s perception that the Soviet Union posed a strategic threat to the West—a reality made manifest by hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops parked in the center of Europe—and its understanding that only Washington possessed the power to deter Moscow. Europeans also perceived the Soviet Union as a common ideological threat. The United States prided itself on being the “leader of the free world,” and most Europeans agreed. Finally, Cold War bipolarity conferred what might be called ‘structural legitimacy’ on the United States. The two superpowers’ roughly equal strength meant that U.S. might, although vast, was kept in check.”