Robert Kagan popularized, 20 years ago, the idea that Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus. With this metaphor he captured the main differences in foreign and defense policy between the two great powers of the West. The Americans, with a greater tendency to use force in foreign relations, more prone to unilateralism and less aware of international legislation. The Europeans, more supporters of diplomacy to resolve conflicts, champions of cooperation and multilateralism and respectful of the international rules of the game.
Kagan's analogy made a fortune, since it intuitively synthesized the geostrategic divergences between the allies. In the crisis unleashed by the war in Ukraine, this disparity of approaches has once again weighed. This explains, in part, the reluctance of sectors of the population and the European political class to increase military aid to Ukraine, as well as the insistent calls to seek an early end to hostilities, with the necessary concessions to the Russian dictator. . In Europe, moreover, an animosity towards the United States and NATO remains latent, which goes so far as to blame the West for the genesis of the conflict.
However, the Europe of 2023 is not the Europe of 2003. The EU is today a more diverse political community, and its members in Central, Nordic and Eastern Europe, well aware of the expansionism that has historically characterized Russian politics, have qualified European goodness. Even with tensions, Venus and Mars have been able to face the Ukraine crisis with great unity of action, which has been essential to support Ukraine and has undermined the Kremlin's strategy.
Unfortunately, the improvement in strategic collaboration in defense and foreign policy has not been transferred to trade policy, another key issue in international relations. With President Trump, a policy of protectionism began in the United States, focused on China, but also with derivatives towards Europe, which President Biden does not seem to have the intention of abandoning. Populist politicians may lose power, but end up imposing their agenda for years. Last August, the United States approved a huge support package for its industry, boosting renewable energy technologies in the misnamed Reduction of Inflation Act. It is a subsidy policy that discriminates against non-US companies, in an act of unilateralism that goes against the guidelines of the World Trade Organization.
In the classical world, Mars was the god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love. Europe has done well to be a little less Venus on defense, and will likely do the same on foreign trade in a world that is becoming more hostile. Surely there is no alternative, but it is a pity, because protectionism impoverishes us all.
