In trade, investment, and economic cooperation, Americans and Europeans continue to work closely for mutual benefit. Yet statism, protectionism, and the socialist impulse are far from entirely defeated.
In political-security affairs, moreover, there is evidence of drift. Europe's desire for self-reliance mixes dangerously with the motives of those who wish the new Europe to emerge as a counterweight and strategic rival to the United States.
The New Atlantic Initiative (NAI) of the American Enterprise Institute is an international nonpartisan network of think-tanks, business leaders, journalists, and prominent political and cultural figures dedicated to revitalizing and expanding the Atlantic community of democracies. The NAI's central objective is to strengthen Atlantic cooperation and to combat the dangerous drift and self-absorption that infect American and European politics.
The New Atlantic Initiative seeks to do this by bringing together Americans and Europeans to work toward common goals including:
- The reinvigoration of Atlantic institutions of political cooperation and consultation.
- The admission of Europe's fledgling democracies into the institutions of Atlantic defense and European economic cooperation, notably NATO and the European Union.
- The promotion of free markets and free trade between an enlarged European Union and the North American Free Trade Area.