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With U.S. president Donald Trump adjusting American diplomacy in a way that alienates a good number of EU member states and large parts of the European public, calls for a more independent EU posture in international affairs have grown louder once more. Trump's open threats to the EU and its trade policy, to NATO and its Article 5 security guarantee, to global climate change policy, the JPOA with Iran, and a number of other decisions, many Europeans feel a need to distance themselves from Washington. Talk of European „strategic autonomy“ and „European sovereignty“ has become popular. But this is no easy undertaking as Europe remains militarily weak and thus dependent on U.S. extended deterrence for its own security. Is it even possible for Europeans to distance themselves from – or even counterbalance against – its own big protector?
One possible arena in which the „European Moment“ in foreign policy could play out is the United Nations. The UN stands for the very multilateral approach to foreign policy that most Europeans cherish and that they deem worthy of protection against a U.S. president who eyes all such frameworks with suspicion or even open aggression.
For a long time, EU member states have aspired to coordinate their political positions and diplomatic forays in the UN Security Council, the UN General assembly, and in the myriad bodies and agencies of the UN system. With two EU members, France and Britain, being permanent members of the UNSC, with power very unevenly distributed among EU members, with Brexit soon to alter the established ways, and with different interests and leanings playing out among the EU 28, these efforts has never been easy, have produced very limited results, and could become even more difficult very soon.
And yet, key European players such as France and Germany, have voiced their determination to reframe the way they and their EU partners should cooperate at the UN level. They seek to turn Donald Trump's open hostility to the UN and the impending Brexit into an opportunity for demonstrating that Europe, on its own, is serious about its responsibility for global governance and international diplomacy.
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