Michael Singh is the Managing Director and Lane-Swig Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
There can be no opting out for the United States or Europe; the only question is whether they will face their mutual threats capably and cooperatively.
Sixteen years ago, the United States was at the height of its response to the attacks of September 11, 2001; it had decimated the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that had harbored the 9/11 terrorists, and was poised to invade and topple the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. It was in this context that Robert Kagan wrote Of Paradise and Power, memorably laying out the stark differences in the ways that Americans and Europeans perceived and utilized power on the international stage. The upshot, in his view, was that the United States not only could “prepare for and respond to the strategic challenges around the world without much help from Europe,” but was already doing so. Yet nearly two decades on, the American view of power has changed...
