Terms of Engagement: The United States and the European Security Identity

This essay originated as a paper that I prepared for a project on the Western European Union and NATO, codirected by Carl Lankowski and Simon Serfaty under the joint auspices of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It has benefited from the companion papers written by Alyson Bailes, Antonio Marquina Barrio, Gianni Bonvicini, Yves Boyer, and Matthias Joop as well as the discussion they elicited from participants in the working group.

I owe a special debt of thanks to Simon Serfaty, who proposed that I enlarge on the themes of that earlier paper and encouraged me to do so in the cause of lifting some of the fog that besets the transatlantic security dialogue. He contributed equally as a sympathetic, yet critical commentator on a draft version. Helpful comments were also provided by Stephen Szabo, James Goodby, and Guillaume Parmentier. I was particularly fortunate in that John Roper generously applied his exceptional knowledge of European affairs and critical rigor to a careful scrutiny of the manuscript. Neither he, nor my other commentators, bear any responsibility for whatever errors or misjudgments remain despite those earnest efforts.

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