The Next Superpower?: The Rise of Europe and Its Challenge to the United States Book

"The best book yet written on the geopolitical significance of the economic colossus of the European Union and its contentious relations with America. It is a must read for Europeans and Americans who are concerned about the future of the Atlantic partnership."Robert Mundell, Nobel Laureate in Economics and "Father of the Euro"For many Americans, recent news of "crisis" in the European Union (EU) has drawn attention to this unique 25-nation organization, whose history stretches back more than half a century. In the turmoil over the EU constitution and budget, as with the earlier European rift over the war in Iraq, the EU faces choices that will determine its future success and even its very survival.In The Next Superpower?: The Rise of Europe and its Challenge to the United States, Ambassador Rockwell Schnabel, a native European, respected American businessman, and the most recent U.S. representative to the EU, takes on this complex and controversial terrain.With a gross domestic product approaching $12 trillion, second only to that of the U.S.; the world's largest budget for development assistance to poor countries; a membership that includes two nuclear powers (Britain and France); and 25 votes at the United Nations, the EU can and does use its vast economic and geopolitical "soft power" to influence events and economies around the world. U.S. political and military leaders, and the largest American corporations including Microsoft and General Electric, have learned that the EU is a force they cannot afford to ignore -- and which they must come to understand better.What do Americans need to know about how the EU works? And why should the U.S. be concerned about preserving its partnership with the EU? Ambassador Schnabel answers these questions, and lays out the vital choices that Europeans must make over the next few years, which will determine whether or not the EU fulfills its potential and becomes the next superpower.Will the EU take the path of free markets, blazed by Tony Blair's Britain and the newest post-Communist member states? Or the path of heavy regulation and state economic management long promoted by France? Will the EU reaffirm its historic commitment to the Atlantic Alliance? Or abandon the common defense of the West in favor of a French strategy of "counterbalancing" America?These choices are momentous not only for Europe but also for the United States. America?s wealth and security depend on an integrated Europe committed to free markets and the Atlantic Alliance. This book, the first of its kind, makes clear why the U.S. must work with the EU -- or expect the EU to work against it.Read More