Comments
With authority and clarity, Europe Adrift gives a keen and astute analysis of the struggle of the European nations to reorder their priorities in the post-Cold War era. John Newhouse--a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and a consultant to the State Department--is perfectly placed to examine the deep and continuing divisions in a unified Germany, France's reluctance to accept Germany's ascendancy in European affairs, the self-marginalization of Britain, the lapses of the European Union, and the complex politics of NATO enlargement.
We are able to comprehend as never before Europe's inability to deal with the tragic events in the former Yugoslavia, the likelihood that a single European currency will be politically divisive and even damaging to the economies it is meant to help, and the dangers of a breakdown of Russia's armed forces, including the system that controls the country's nuclear weapons.
Newhouse cogently argues that the weakness of European governments and political parties, along with the absence of an organizing principle--such as real threat from a superpower--will discourage progress toward a broad and stable European order. As the leaders of the European Union engage in a headlong scramble to ensure that economic and monetary union begins as planned on January 1, 1999, Europe Adrift will prove to be one of the most important and widely discussed books of recent times.
