Whatever your personal opinion about the new US President may be, supporters and foes cannot but agree that his foreign policy has not received good grades in the media.
Editorial pages are filled with negative views about the president on the stage of international diplomacy. These voices reflect the disappointment and anger many governments sense regarding the foreign policy of the new administration. In just a few weeks the former Texan governor succeeded in snubbing the European allies on more than one occasion.
Probably, the most serious provocation in the eyes of the Europeans has been the decision to renounce the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing global warming. Furthermore, fundamental trans-Atlantic differences have become apparent in dealing with the Russians.
The Europeans wish to engage Moscow, where and whenever possible, while the US -- at this stage -- prefer picking fights, making some observers wonder whether the decision-makers in the White House have not realized the Cold War is over. And, third, there is Korea, not really a center of attention for any European government, but an issue, where the Europeans have from the very beginning supported the Sunshine Policy of President Kim Dae-jung. This can not be said of the Bush administration, which may be called the gravedigger of the conciliatory process.
"Sometimes I get up in the morning and wonder who we're going to offend today," a senior career diplomat at the US State Department was quoted as saying a few days ago. The problem with the new team in the White House, if at all we may call it a team, is: their actions are often out of sync with the etiquette of international diplomacy, a fact that weighs heavily especially in East Asia, where much attention is attributed to formalities. Bush's behavior affects international Realpolitik, as it seems to lead us away from a world, in which disputes and conflicts are settled in negotiations and by dialogue, to a world, in which military might and power once again take centre stage. The US president "may well be the most conservative, partisan and hawkish leader his country has ever seen," a British paper opined recently under the provocative headline: "Bush is a threat to the world."
The displeasure of many a European commentator at US behavior is shared by the governments of the old continent. One area, in which the Europeans have decided to get involved directly with the aim of counterbalancing the negative effects the shift of US foreign policy has had is the Korean peninsula. In early May a senior EU delegation will visit Pyongyang and Seoul. It is the first time the Europeans will nail their colors to the mast in a region traditionally considered the strategic backyard of the US.
"The aim is to express support for the process started by the South Korean President Kim Dae-jung," said the Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU in the first six months of this year, and who will lead the delegation.
Stockholm's foreign minister was more explicit: "It's becoming clear that the new US administration wants to take a more hard-line approach toward North Korea. Europe must step in to help reduce tension between the two Koreas." The Europeans' diplomatic mission has been prepared carefully. In early March, the Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Hans Dahlgren, went to Pyongyang to pave the way for the European-North Korean summit.
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