"Balancing a different world? Britain betwixt America and Europe"

Hussain, Imtiaz. (2003) "Balancing a different world? Britain betwixt America and Europe". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2003 (8th), March 27-29, 2003, pages 49, Nashville, TN.

Abstract

Even though European and US approaches to international relations were distinguished during the Cold War, those divergences magnified after the Cold War, in turn raising questions if the attention should continue to be on systemic influences or power rivalry, or elevate social factors like identities. Complicating the theoretical puzzle was an empirical enigma: Do these paradigms reflect policy-maker's preferences or public opinion? Through a study of two issues of high politics (second Iraq war, Israel-Palestine imbroglio) and two of low (International Criminal Court establishment, Kyoto Protocol ratification), this study finds widening gaps between (a) policy prescriptions and public opinion; (b) American versus European viewpoints; (c) Britain's U.S. allegiance and insufficient European identities; and (d) theories and realities, with the latter needing more than a single paradigm to be fully understood and the former becoming too dissected and diluted in meaningfully explain and predict Simultaneous balancing, bandwagoning, and straddling may be the order of the new era.