European Integration and the United States: Shared Prosperity and Shared Crises

Abstract

The United States and Europe are inextricably tied together - and increasingly so.These ties are not only economic, but also profoundly cultural. The shared history ofthe United States and Europe has also made clear that not only is the prosperity of the two sides of the Atlantic mutually dependent, but so is their security. American economic crises have almost always been linked to crises in Europe and, of course,European crises are usually inseparable from those in the U.S. These crises have notonly been connected to the usual economic cycles and transformations, but also to security threats. The worst breakdowns in security, large-scale wars that have pulledin both sides of the Atlantic, have also provoked economic crises. Major wars are verycostly, and the two world wars of the twentieth century instigated severe transatlantic economic challenges that could only be solved through American financial intervention with European coordination. The same could be said of the long ColdWar. So, each new crisis has made it evident that solutions must be Euro-Atlantic, allthe more so as the transatlantic economy has become increasingly interdependent and dense.