Why America? The US role in European security architecture since 1945 4219-SG047-OG

As has been the case for more than 70 years, the US security guarantee plays a central role in European defense. It’s become so endemic to European security architecture that no one thought it could ever be challenged. But when US president Trump called the North Atlantic Alliance into question, European leaders began re-examining some ideas for European defense that have been on the table in recent years. The war in Ukraine has in addition challenged the post- Cold War thinking about the European security and the role of the United States in the old continent’s security.
The current war in Ukraine (ongoing since 2014) and its recent sudden outbreak after Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022 has become a testing ground for the credibility of the Atlantic alliance and its values on both sides of the Atlantic, with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty (NATO) at the core of NATO’s security assurances to NATO’s eastern members.
This war became also a testing ground for other organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as well as the European Union. Will these organizations meet this challenge? Will they save the current world order on the European continent? And what is the role of the United States in European security architecture – in making Europe “whole and free”?
This course will discuss the major steps in developing the US presence and influence on European security architecture since 1945. It will discuss the key documents and ideological background that constitute the US-Europe’s relationship in the security sphere. After the course, students will be able to understand the US’ uneven relationship with Europe, as well as its bilateral security relations with some specific European countries as they pertain to the security area.
The above will be analyzed in four thematic blocks:
1. Ideological foundations:
- The US and its policy of isolationism; walking away from isolationism; the WWI and the interwar period
- American exceptionalism, “mission to the mankind” and the Wilsonian moralism for post - WW2 international liberal order
- Key US presidential doctrines and their impact on policy directions in the post WW2 period
2. International liberal post-war order – Wilsonian ideas in action:
- The US and Europe on the onset of the Cold War; the Marshall Plan for Europe (1948) and relations with the Western Europe, Relations with the Soviet Union; foundation of the United Nations (1945) and the North Atlantic Alliance/NATO (1949)
- American policy towards post-war Germany; the Berlin Wall and the Cold War struggle over Germany; reunification and security of Europe
- Arms race and arms control: the disarmament process and the 1975 Helsinki Act – foundation of the CSCE/OSCE
- European Community/Western European Union/EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)
3. US bilateral security relations with European countries:
- US relations with the Western Europe
- US relations with the Eastern Europe
- US and Russia in the post - Cold War era
4. End of the Cold War and the US Grand Strategy – what place for Europe?
- Transatlantic relations under presidents: George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barrack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden
- Key documents related to the American national security interests as defined by the post - Cold War presidencies
- 21st century, new trans-border challenges and the transatlantic security cooperation; 2022 – conventional/unconventional war in Ukraine?