Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 7, 1992 TAG: 9201080005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DONALD E. NUECHTERLEIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A MOMENTOUS YEAR
IT WAS an extraordinary year in international relations, one of the most important in half a century. Looking back on 1991, consider these momentous events:
Complete disintegration of the once-mighty Soviet Union and its replacement\ with a loose commonwealth of independent countries.
Emergence of an economic and political union among twelve West European\ nations, making the European Community potentially the world's strongest\ economic power.
Crushing of Iraq's ambition to be the leader of the Arab world, thus ensuring the flow of cheap Persian Gulf oil.
In addition, progress was made on establishing peace in Cambodia, Korea,\ Angola and South Africa, and in beginning negotiations between Israel and the\ Arab countries. Those are remarkable achievements in areas where violence had\ prevailed for many years.
Breakup of the Soviet Union without war is, in my view, the most astonishing international event of the past half-century. Not only did the West win the Cold War - after 40 years of confrontation with the Soviet empire, it now sees the collapse of the entire Soviet system and its replacement by at least 14 new states.
No historical precedent exists for two mighty powers confronting one another\ without war for nearly half a century and then ending their power struggle by\ the collapse of one side. Why this occurred will be studied for decades.
The Bush Administration correctly argues that the United States should not\ be involved in the internal debates among newly independent republics\ concerning their relationships with each other. The administration focuses U.S.\ attention instead on the control and dismantling of Moscow's huge nuclear\ arsenal, now located in four republics.
The European Community's decision in December to move toward economic and\ political union by the end of the decade may be the most fundamental\ development of the 1990s.
A United States of Europe, which Washington envisioned 45 years ago when the\ Marshall Plan was formulated, is nearly a reality. In the next eight years, the\ EC countries, comprising a bloc of 340 million Europeans, wlll merge their\ economies so tightly that political union likely will follow.
Britain was given a concession to reserve final judgment, but it too will\ eventually relinquish much of its sovereignty to obtain the advantages of this\ huge market.
The economic power of Europe, already dominated by the reunited Germany, has\ attracted 10 more countries in Eastern and Northern Europe, including the\ Ukraine. If they are accepted eventually into the new European union, an\ economic and political superpower of 500 million people may emerge.
A third major event of 1991 was the successful ending of the Persian Gulf\ War with few American casualties, the destruction of Saddam Hussein's war-\ aking machine, and the assurance of low-cost Persian Gulf oil in world markets. An important byproduct of the war is the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Israel and its Arab neighbors are desperate for economic aid, and the United\ States, for the first time, is tying assistance to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli\ agreement.
America's emergence in 1991 as the only remaining superpower also enables\ the United Nations for the first time to assume the role it was denied during\ the Cold War: the mediator of international disputes.
The United Nations played a major role in the Persian Gulf conflict, in\ negotiating a Cambodian political settlement, and in obtaining the release of\ western hostages in Lebanon. It will have a major peace-keeping role in\ Palestine and in Yugoslavia when the violence stops there.
In looking back on these favorable international developments of l991, some\ Americans conclude that the world is a much safer place and that America's work\ is done. The gloomy economic news in December highlights an argument made by\ several presidential candidates that the United States should abandon the world\ and concentrate on the serious problems at home.
That argument has much appeal at a time when major U.S. firms have announced\ huge layoffs of skilled workers, and as many businesses and banks are going\ bankrupt. Restructuring American business and industry will not, however, be\ accomplished by withdrawing from the world. America is part of the global\ economic system and it cannot simply cop out.
The reality of 1992 is that although the Cold War is over, our country paid\ a heavy economic price to win it. Now the president and Congress should agree\ on how to assist the restructuring of America's industrial base so that the\ country may compete successfully in the new economic order. However, that\ requires imagination and a measure of political bipartisanship that will be\ hard to find in an election year.
Donald E. Nuechterlein, a political scientist and writer who lives in Charlottesville, is author of "America Recommitted: U.S. National Interests in a Restructured World."