By Ambassador Rockwell A. Schnabel, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005, ISBN 0742545474.
Reviewed by Darris McNeely
Last May the French voted "no" to the European Constitution. Ever since, many have speculated that the European project is stalled or halted. Nothing could be further from the truth. The European Community is still a potent force in world affairs and growing larger. Anyone who thinks Europe will not be a player, if not the player, on the future geopolitical scene does not understand our current world.
The Next Superpower? shows how the structure of the European colossus is building, one layer at a time.
Rockwell Schnabel wrote this book after serving as U.S. ambassador to the European Union from 2001 to 2005. He is a businessman from California, born in the Netherlands but raised in America.
Most Americans do not appreciate the significance of what has developed in Europe during the past 50 years. Many see the union as nothing more than a trading bloc, if it even shows up on their radar screens. Even the experts, such as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, as recently as 1999 dismissed the euro (the EU common currency) as a "failure." Yet Europe has become an economic power in today's world and is well on the path to becoming a global power of the first magnitude.
Not everyone has so lightly dismissed the European Union. Some recognize the threat the EU poses to American economic and geopolitical dominance.
In September 2003 an article appeared in the American magazine The Weekly Standard titled, "Against United Europe." The article was written by a British journalist and advocated an anti-EU strategy by developing ties with Eastern member states and advising Britain not to adopt the euro. It concluded: "It is not too late for the United States to help stop the European superstate from becoming a reality."
