Atlanticism

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Atlanticism is a philosophy of cooperation among European and North American nations regarding political, economic, and defense issues. One who believes in Atlanticism is known as an Atlantist or an Atlanticist.

Individual examples include Tony Blair, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Javier Solana. NATO is an Atlanticist organization, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a production of Lockheed Martin (USA) along with partners Northrop Grumman (USA) and BAE Systems (UK), is an Atlanticist project. On continental Europe, many Eastern European countries such as Poland and Romania ^[1]profess a strong Atlanticist view.

Atlanticism has undergone significant changes in the 21st century in light of the global war on terror and Iraq war. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time, which states that any attack on a member state will be considered an attack against the entire group of members. This prompted European countries to send a small amount of troops to the US to assist non-combat activities. European and North American forces are also working together in Afghanistan. However, the Iraq war caused fissures between certain Western European states and the US as well as Eastern European states such as Poland. Countries which supported the Iraq war, such as Spain and Italy, saw their staunchly pro-Iraq war governments lose in recent elections. Cooperation with the US has also been criticized in light of certain unnamed European countries assisting the US with secret CIA prisons.

[edit] References

^ The Economist: Article on the new EU members:Romania and Bulgaria - "Romania, under its president, Traian Basescu, is a bastion of Atlanticism in the Black Sea region."