I am writing with reference Post Breakfast article: "Will the EU ever have a common foreign policy?" by Muhammad Zamir (Dec. 20).
Ambassador Zamir may be right about European Union's striving for an independent foreign policy to counter US unilateralism. But the United States may be on the way to abandoning its unilateral foreign policy towards what some analysts call "selective isolationism." As the Bush administration is winding down, most presidential contenders, both Democratic and Republican, are calling for end of US interventionism in the world. They do not want to withdraw from the international scene in the same way the United States did after the First World War, but they want to leave many issues for other countries to resolve themselves.
Most polls show foreign policy is no longer the pressing issue for most voters. Economy, health care, environment and education are the top issues. Even war against terror is way down the list. About Iraq, most Americans think that it was wrong to go to war and America should not sacrifice the lives of its soldiers in a war that is increasingly becoming a civil war among Shias and Sunnis. Both Democratic frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq while third-placed former Senator Edwards want to pull them out at once. About Iran, despite sabre-rattling by George W. Bush, most candidates don't want any war and they want Europe, Russia and China to press Iran to end its uranium enrichment programme. In short, the United States is asking the European Union to fill the vacuum to be created by America's "selective" withdrawal from the world affairs.
The biggest international concern of the United States and the EU is the growing economic clout of China. China has replaced Japan as America's second greatest trading partner and China has replaced the United States as EU's biggest trading partner. Both the U.S. and EU are running staggering trade deficits with China. The European Union has recently imposed trade restriction on China and although the United States has not done so, the pressure within America to restrict China's trade surplus is growing. Here both the U.S. and the EU have a common ground. But they have failed to act in concert.
The EU is no longer concerned about the U.S. unilateralism, but the European concerns about China's growing economic clout and its dependence on an increasingly assertive Russia next-door may be making the EU to ask for more U.S. role in European affairs. The global situation may have changed dramatically. It may not be long before the EU will be asking America to get involved in European affairs.