Keeping the Promise of 1989: A Millennial Vision for Progressive Atlanticism
November 9, 2019 marks thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall — a defining moment when the promise of freedom, peace, and prosperity seemed within reach for the Euro-Atlantic community. In the decades since, the United States and Europe have remained indispensable partners bound by shared values and a commitment to free, open, just societies. These values were woven into durable economic, security, and political ties that have transformed much of post-communist Europe, especially with the expansion of the European Union and NATO.
For so many though, the promise of 1989 has not been completely fulfilled. The euphoria over the supposed triumph of free markets brought unprecedented deregulation, breakneck globalization, the dismantling of social safety nets, and the creation of an international class of plutocrats. Together, they fueled the 2008 financial crisis, growing inequality, economic anxiety, and populism on both sides of the Atlantic. The early Internet’s libertarianism gave way to monopolistic tech giants whose services build new invisible walls by encouraging online addiction, disinformation, filter bubbles, and ultimately, intensified political radicalization. The Bush administration’s reckless invasion of Iraq and the forever wars damaged alliances and contributed to a series of geopolitical consequences ranging including renewed Middle Eastern instability, the rise of ISIS, and disruptive global flows of refugees fleeing regional conflicts. Inequality, militarism and distrust in democratic institutions have sparked a backlash against the ideals of 1989 within the transatlantic community and beyond. They jeopardize the very viability of free, open, just societies and the transatlantic bond underpinning them.
The past few years — Donald Trump’s 2016 election, Brexit, and the rise of populist leaders across Europe — have rocked the U.S.-European relationship even further. Even if a Democratic U.S. president takes office in 2020, the U.S.-European relationship will not simply “rebound.” Europeans and Americans — like citizens everywhere — see the U.S. and its role in the world differently today. For the transatlantic relationship to remain a global platform for freedom, social justice and human dignity, it needs to reinvigorate the spirit of 1989.
The first step is to acknowledge the blind spots in post-Cold War efforts to build a Euro-Atlantic community whole, free, and at peace — including the notion that the ghosts of Europe’s past were effectively buried. This belief led American and European governments to ignore the importance of delivering inclusive economic growth, addressing human rights, and taking bolder action on gender, ethnic, economic, intergenerational, and climate justice. We need a new roadmap that is clear-eyed about today’s challenges and opportunities.
We recommend the following seven ideas as core elements of a new progressive Atlanticism:
- Reassert our connectedness as a measure of our power: The Trump administration has effectively abandoned core principles, alienated like-minded allies, and weakened multilateral institutions. This is a sure way to lose in an era of great power competition. Globally, the U.S. must not simply return to the order we helped create, but adapt it to the changing power dynamics and social requirements of this new age. This includes working with our critical allies to manage an age of great power competition; rejoining the Paris Climate Accords; prudently updating the Iran Nuclear Deal; rejoining international organizations including the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO; prioritizing negotiations on non-proliferation, arms control and norms-setting in nuclear, cyber, AI and space; and joining the Global Compact on Migration. In the transatlantic space, both the U.S. and Europe should recognize the need to manage great power competition with Russia and China. But there is a need to avoid framing the nations outside today’s borders of NATO and the EU as pawns in a game rather than citizens fighting for their place in a pluralistic, democratic, peaceful Europe. In the Balkans, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Turkey, and ultimately Russia, our first goal must be supporting efforts to develop transparent, pluralistic democracies and economic opportunity. In the coming years, the Balkans — in particular — will be a testing ground for these ideas and efforts. If we fail in the Balkans, we fail in Europe.
- Place the U.S.-EU relationship at the center of transatlantic relations: For too long, the transatlantic relationship has been treated as almost synonymous with NATO. Today, our shared security and resilience will depend as much, if not more, on joint action around climate change, connectivity, anti-corruption and commerce — areas in which the European Union will be our main strategic partner. The U.S. must support Europe’s progress toward “strategic autonomy.” An emancipated Europe — able to act decisively on its own when necessary — would be a better partner for the United States, NATO, and the world.
- Raise climate resilience to the top of energy security policy: U.S. energy security policy toward Europe cannot just be shorthand for the geopolitics of pipelines and LNG. It’s time to broaden the focus to how we can collaborate to foster climate justice and resilience. This can include joint emissions targets for cars and power; support for renewables infrastructure, including in the Balkans and post-Soviet space; as well as free trade agreements and regulatory incentives for clean energy tech and new forms of mobility.
- Fight back against the twin threats of surveillance capitalism and techno-totalitarianism: Technology developed by our governments and private companies within the United States and Europe is often used by repressive regimes around the world to silence dissent, track activists and potentially bring physical harm to those acting on behalf of democracy and human dignity. To address these challenges, we should: close off loopholes in U.S.-EU agreements through which countries can request data on their citizens from private foreign companies and share it through standing intelligence channels; update the U.S.-EU sanctions framework and dual-use export regulations for companies selling technologies to autocratic regimes that use them to surveil and repress citizens and activists; create a credible and independent organization — a kind of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for Euro-Atlantic Tech and Internet Freedom — that supports those pursuing tech pluralism aligned with open society principles, pushes for independent compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Privacy Shield fights efforts by Russia and China to balkanize the web and flood the democratic discourse with state-sponsored disinformation.
- Reclaim NATO and the U.S.-UK Trade Agreement as instruments for democracy: The United States under Trump has lost credibility as a values-based leader. As a result, the U.S. needs to reaffirm our efforts to fight democratic decline and corruption in our own country and beyond. That effort should include NATO. NATO’s Article 2 requires that members continue “strengthening their free institutions” as one of the foundations for the Alliance’s Article 5 guarantees. It’s time for the United States to strengthen commitment to Article 2 within NATO, and explore realistic ways to push back against its own members trending toward authoritarianism. On the geo-economic side of the spectrum, post-Brexit trade agreement negotiations with the UK offers an opportunity to reinvent the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) model as a tool against the rot of corruption and nationalist oligopoly. The United States should require any post-Brexit trade deal to include provisions that fight money laundering and tax evasion, and extend visa bans and asset freezes to family members and associates who profiteer from sanctioned individuals’ dirty money. These provisions should be included in all future bilateral and multilateral trade deals.
- Break the “Transatlantic so White” cycle: The transatlantic community is built on shared values of pluralism that transcend borders and ethnicities. Europe and the United States have different demographics today than they did in 1989, yet we continue to see U.S.-European power centers lacking representation from the constituencies they seek to serve. Equally concerning is the rise of far-right groups that are targeting vulnerable and marginalized communities like immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community, and religious and racial/ethnic minority groups, like the Roma or Black Americans. If the U.S.-Europe relationship is to deliver inclusive growth for all, then all segments of society must be represented in the halls of Washington and Brussels, and included in discourse about the future of the transatlantic relationship. This means moving events and conferences like the European Parliament’s People of African Descent Week — which was supported by several members of the Congressional Black Caucus — to the main stage, not the margins, of transatlantic discourse. It also means building out pipelines for diverse and representative leadership and practicing inclusion in our own governance institutions.
- Take a local-level approach to transatlantic engagement: Going forward, we must build strength in the transatlantic relationship that extends beyond Washington and Brussels. We must push for more effective engagement with subnational leaders — in U.S. states and cities — and the communities that they represent on both sides of the Atlantic. To secure democratic buy-in for the idea that the transatlantic relationship is worth our collective investment, we should build asymmetric alliances that engage subnational actors on everything from climate resilience to data privacy to poverty alleviation. California is leading the way with the State Legislature’s Transatlantic Strategic Dialogue, in keeping faith with Paris emissions targets and on tech in areas like data protection, deep fakes and the gig economy. Others like New Jersey, Chicago and New York City are involved in similar efforts.
In the end, a liberal democratic world will only endure if the benefits of its promise are mirrored in the lived experiences of our nations’ diverse communities. We can cement our ties — the Euro-Atlantic alliance and all the shared values upon which it is built — by providing a way for all citizens to see that they can benefit from, and contribute to, all the good that a global community based on these values offers.
The costs of the Trump presidency will be high, but with enough work, they don’t have to be permanent. Right now, we are standing on the edge. In a post-Trump world, we have a chance to build a Euro-Atlantic space that delivers on 1989’s promise of peace, prosperity and dignity for all. For the sake of those who fought — and won — in 1989, we have to take it.
Tyson Barker, Program Director and Fellow, Aspen Institute Germany
Philip Bednarczyk, Former Democratic Advisor for Europe, House Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. Congress
Max Bergmann, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Jonathan Beutler, Truman National Security Fellow, Former Foreign Service Officer
Kelsey L. Campbell, U.S. Air Force Veteran, Former Advisor, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Leo Cruz, Former Special Assistant, Department of the Air Force
Welton Chang, Chief Technology Officer, Human Rights First
Bishop Garrison, Director of National Security Outreach and Director, Veterans for American Ideals, Human Rights First
Rose Jackson, Former Chief of Staff, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. State Department
Laura Kupe, Former Special Assistant, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Obama Administration
Anka Lee, Director of International Relations, California State Assembly
Jeff Mankoff, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Kim Olson, Fellow, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Former Foreign Service Officer, U.S. State Department
Deeneaus Polk, MPP Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School
Anthony Robinson, Former White House Political Appointee, Obama Administration
Rachel Rizzo, Fellow, Robert Bosch Stiftung
Cynthia Romero, Former Strategic Communications Advisor, USAID
Mark Simakovsky, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
Camille Stewart, Former Senior Policy Advisor, Cyber, Infrastructure and Resiliance, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Torrey Taussig, Research Director, Harvard Kennedy School
