{"id":266456,"date":"2018-08-15T10:31:25","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T14:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/an-atlantic-community-to-bolster-the-west\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:11:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:11:43","slug":"an-atlantic-community-to-bolster-the-west","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/08\/an-atlantic-community-to-bolster-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"An \u201cAtlantic Community\u201d to bolster the West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the West falling apart? Although news of the West\u2019s demise may be premature, the increasingly erratic policies<\/a> of US President Donald Trump are placing enormous pressure on the military and nonmilitary ties that bind us. And it\u2019s not just the United States. Britain\u2019s exit from the European Union, no matter how amicable the eventual terms of divorce, marks another significant blow to Western unity.<\/p>\n

Trump is obviously at the centre of the current firestorm. But as the President bullies some of America\u2019s key Western allies on trade, defence and foreign policy, other questions arise.\u00a0Has the West organized itself in the strongest way possible to withstand such rogue actions by its most powerful member? Instead of North America and Europe being linked together by a series of separate defence and trade arrangements, would a more formal \u201cAtlantic Community\u201d be more effective in keeping the West together?<\/p>\n

Should NATO, for example, become an organization that is about more than defence, and concern itself with trade and other nonmilitary matters too?<\/p>\n

The idea has a certain appeal. A nonmilitary role for NATO could potentially result in the formation of a huge trading bloc of nations.\u00a0As a member of a formal economic and defence community, it would be extremely difficult for the United States, or any other nation, to engage in capricious trade actions without facing serious repercussions from other alliance members.<\/p>\n

A formal Atlantic Community might also create a larger framework within which Britain, always wary of being too close to a united Europe, might feel more secure.\u00a0Finally, such an arrangement could potentially give member states more power and influence when it comes to curbing the foreign policy excesses of the United States.<\/p>\n

Linking trade with defence is not necessarily a strange proposition. In fact, it\u2019s odd that NATO members pledge their full military support to each other but receive no special trading status. If we are prepared to send our sons and daughters to defend an alliance partner, shouldn\u2019t we get automatic access to their markets?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s currently not the way it works. Western defence is organized under the NATO umbrella, and trade through the European Union, NAFTA and other agreements. But this bifurcated arrangement was not preordained.\u00a0As I outlined in my 2006 book, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948-1957: Community or Alliance?,<\/a><\/em> when the leaders of the West came together in the late 1940s to negotiate what would become NATO, many favoured a vision that went far beyond military arrangements.<\/p>\n

Canada was by far the greatest proponent<\/a> of the Atlantic idea.\u00a0Canadian leaders immediately saw value in having any treaty contain nonmilitary arrangements, particularly economic ones.\u00a0Such an arrangement, they believed, would help break down trade barriers, balance their relationship with the United States, Britain and Western Europe, and serve to moderate US foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Canadians failed to generate much enthusiasm among their allies. Most countries negotiating the North Atlantic Treaty saw its purpose as gaining a military commitment to stave off the Soviet threat. As for economic matters,\u00a0their focus was on greater cooperation among Western European nations, particularly because that was a key goal of the US Marshall Plan<\/a>, which was at that moment distributing significant postwar aid in Europe.<\/p>\n

It should be stressed that Canada didn\u2019t want the new alliance to take over existing multilateral economic machinery.\u00a0Its vision was more evolutionary in nature.\u00a0As External Affairs Minister Lester Pearson<\/a> explained to his cabinet colleagues in late 1948: \u201cThe North Atlantic Community is today a real commonwealth of nations which share the same democratic and cultural traditions.\u00a0If a movement towards its political and economic unification can be started this year, no one can forecast the extent of the unity which may exist, five, ten or fifteen years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s persistence paid off.\u00a0Article 2<\/a> of the North Atlantic Treaty, often referred to as the Canadian article, commits members to undertake closer cooperation, particularly economically. Although it was a victory of sorts for Canada, the other signatories had mainly agreed to its provision simply to placate their ally.<\/p>\n

Despite this lack of consensus over the article\u2019s meaning, it did not remain dormant.\u00a0As the Cold War intensified, many saw greater nonmilitary cooperation as a way of dealing with many challenges facing the West, from the question of German reintegration to coping with the economic strain of rearmament.\u00a0No consensus ever seemed to emerge, however, on how to make article 2 fully operational, and Canada, increasingly indecisive, was unable to provide strong leadership.<\/p>\n

In the early 1950s, Britain became a strong advocate for the broader Atlantic alliance idea.\u00a0Uneasy about steps being taken by the countries of Western Europe toward greater unity, it saw an Atlantic system as a way to maintain its ties with Europe while still cooperating with the United States, Canada and other Commonwealth countries.<\/p>\n

These efforts reached a climax in 1952 with the end of Marshall Plan aid<\/a> to Europe. Here was an opportunity to broaden economic cooperation from a European framework to an Atlantic one.\u00a0Nevertheless, despite British advocacy for the Atlantic vision, there was too much support among most NATO members for keeping the focus on Western Europe, and this view prevailed.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t mean the end of article 2.\u00a0Nonmilitary cooperation continued to make guest appearances within NATO, particularly when it came to political consultation.\u00a0Many member countries argued that for NATO to operate properly, there had to be some foreign policy coherence among its members. Building such coherence required meaningful consultation within the alliance.<\/p>\n

This was particularly true when it came to NATO\u2019s most powerful member, the United States, and, to a lesser extent, France and Britain.\u00a0Despite efforts to use article 2 to mandate such consultation, the results were mixed, and, just as they are today, NATO members were often caught by surprise by many of the foreign policy adventures of its leading members.<\/p>\n

The end of the Cold War in the late 1980s and early 1990s gave article 2 some renewed prominence as NATO\u2019s leaders recognized the challenge of keeping the West unified<\/a> without a common enemy. Was greater nonmilitary cooperation the answer? A series of international conflicts, such as those in the former Yugoslavia<\/a>, combined with the growing threat of terrorism<\/a>, quickly rendered that question moot, and defence once again became NATO\u2019s overwhelming focus.<\/p>\n

As NATO faces its current existential crisis, the West\u2019s failure to implement the Atlantic idea may prove to have been a lost opportunity.\u00a0It might, however, represent a framework for the future \u2014 even if only over the long term. A true Atlantic community would limit the freedom of the United States to engage in actions against its allies on trade or defence, as it would face reprisals from the entire community. Restraining the US under such an arrangement would be welcomed in many quarters, perhaps legitimizing the maxim once uttered by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower<\/a>: \u201cIf you can\u2019t solve a problem, enlarge it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0NATO member countries heads of states and governments meeting in Brussels, Belgium on July 11, 2018. Photo by Alexandros Michailidis\/Depo Photos\/ABACAPRESS.COM<\/p>\n

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Is the West falling apart? Although news of the West\u2019s demise may be premature, the increasingly erratic policies of US President Donald Trump are placing enormous pressure on the military and nonmilitary ties that bind us. And it\u2019s not just the United States. Britain\u2019s exit from the European Union, no matter how amicable the eventual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":258106,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T02:11:45Z","apple_news_api_id":"200dca70-4044-449d-9dc1-24313a903065","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T02:11:46Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AIA3KcEBERJ2dwSQxOpAwZQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9360,9358,9372],"tags":[8476],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4217,4295],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7189],"class_list":["post-266456","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-politique","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-us-politics-fr","irpp-category-affaires-internationales","irpp-category-politique","irpp-tag-etats-unis"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn \u201cAtlantic Community\u201d to bolster the West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/08\/an-atlantic-community-to-bolster-the-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An \u201cAtlantic Community\u201d to bolster the West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is the West falling apart? 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