The Persistence of Problems in EC-US Relations: Conflicts of Perception?
Strange, Susan. “The Persistence of Problems in EC-US Relations: Conflicts of Perception?” In The External Relations of the European Community, in Particular EC-US Relations, edited by Jürgen Schwarze, 109-118. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlasgesellschaft, 1989.
Strange suggests that the two primary activities of any political organisation are the furtherance of security and the control of money, and it is these issues that remain at the centre of the problem of US-Europe relations. Here Strange again challenges the assumption of a loss of American hegemony (and therefore power) in the global system. This leads her to emphasise the need for both political will by the system’s strongest state as well as international and multilateral efforts to attend to the problems of the global system, for it is different perception on either side of the Atlantic of America’s potential to act which are causing continued friction. While the Europeans see an America unwilling to act, the US Government claims it cannot act.
Keywords: Europe; Hegemony; Money and Finance; Security; United States