Cautious Revolution: The European Community Arrives
By now most Americans know "1992" is not a European commemoration of Columbus' discovery, but knowledge, let alone understanding, of the European Community remains in short supply. This book, which had its origins in a Council on Foreign Relations study group, is a helpful primer on the Community's history and institutions, written by a former diplomat and congressional aide.
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Assesses (1) progress in the evolution of a European security identity, with particular reference to the EC's handling of the Yugoslav crisis (2) how US foreign policy should adjust itself thereto. "The starting point for American policy should be an end to ambivalence over the Europeans building some defense co-operation of their own", and the USA should recognize that "NATO will not continue to serve as the cornerstone for an American political role in Europe".
In my frequent visits to the United States these days, I am asked most insistently two questions about Europe: "What will happen in 1992?" and "Can a united European market work?" Many Americans are either skeptical about the future of Europe or nervous about it. Some predict that when put to the test a united Europe will quickly splinter under national and local political pressures. Others fear that Europeans will drop their internal trade barriers only to erect a higher new external wall, creating a kind of "Fortress Europe."
Europe's move to block the GE-Honeywell merger should not have come as a surprise. Brussels' antitrust philosophy is profoundly at odds with the U.S. approach.

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