Published on December 12, 2000
© 2000- The Baltimore Sun

NEW YORK - Europe, the mother of the industrial revolution, is greeting the changes brought about by globalization and the e-revolution not only with Old World cynicism but often with trepidation.

Newness and change, frequently represented by America, are becoming the unwanted strangers knocking on the door. There is concern about the loss of political power and cultural relevance as the United States becomes even more dominant. That concern is accompanied by a natural uneasiness with change that is rooted within many segments of European society. In Europe, especially in central Europe, change over the past century has often been negative. Deconstruction, the current buzzword used to demonstrate how the effects of e-business can destroy and then, hopefully, resurrect a traditional corporation, can also be applied to modern European history. European deconstruction began with World War I and, unlike a company, which can either go bankrupt or remake itself, the culture was irreparably scarred. The apprehension toward change has begun creating its own political dynamic within Europe.

Nearly a decade after the end of the Cold War, Europe, the United States' most important economic and cultural ally, far from being at peace with itself, is riddled with self-doubts. There is a new hesitancy. European populist leaders such as Austria's Joerg Haider and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, sensing this unease, have developed a romanticized version of the past that feeds on, and is in concert with, this fear of change.

By contrast, in America, nearly all doubts about the e-revolution and globalization have been smothered by prosperity. The U.S. government deserves some credit for this success. But even more important is the particular cultural and historical imprint of the American personality, which lends itself to the dynamics of the e-revolution.

The American immigrant tradition of optimism and risk taking, combined with its entrepreneurial culture and the free movement of labor, uniquely enabled Americans to exploit the changes brought on by the New Economy. Of course, added to this is the freedom to try, derived from the very fortunate American historical experience that most new things work out positively.

As the Internet and globalization make the world smaller, the distance separating Europe and the United States has grown greater. Part of this growing gap is natural, as the World War II generation passes on. But a far larger fissure is being created by the difference that the interplay of the new economy is having on the two continents and Europe's perception that the United States has become the new Rome.

In Europe, the impression has grown that the United States is not a proud child of European culture but an overreaching, newly wealthy giant. French President Jacques Chirac has argued that Europe should evolve as a counterbalance to America, to go a slightly different way. This argument is counterproductive.

Instead of Europe as a counterbalance, Europe needs the United States not only for its ability to lead in joint military actions such as Kosovo; it needs America as the shared laboratory of democratic entrepreneurship. Most important, Europe needs a non-overbearing, forward-looking America to buttress it against the pulls of the past.

Adding to this divide, sensitivity to Europe's needs is lacking within segments of the U.S. foreign policy community. These foreign policy experts believe that our relations with Europe can be put on hold while the United States concentrates on the Middle East or is preoccupied with a crisis in the Taiwan Straits. They fail to see the historic reality that the welfare of the United States can be threatened whenever Europe is threatened by change.

As the only superpower, it is easy for the United States to become parochial and not clearly see the need to strengthen its relationship with Europe. The virtual world has broken down political borders. But it has not yet changed geo-political realities. The United States can never afford the possibilities of a world in which European leadership, responding to domestic insecurities and U.S. disengagement, opts for a different way.

The European-American relationship is essential, not only to support our mutual economic interest but because we have more in common with each other than we have separately with any other country. As the forces of change create pressures on various cultures, it is this link of commonality that will in the long run ensure worldwide security and prosperity.

Edward Goldberg is president of New York-based F.J. Elsner North America Ltd., which trades extensively with Russia and Eastern Europe. He travels often to Europe.