U.S.-Europe Relations in a Changing World

Brent Scowcroft prefaced his remarks by saying that it was nice to talk about something other than the Persian Gulf war. He said that the war has eclipsed the most fundamental development of our time, the restructuring of Europe to include the Soviet Union. These changes affected the way in which the Gulf war was handled. Mr. Scowcroft said that “we live in rare moment in history” because it is a time of transition. The period of rigidity, conflict and good guys-bad guys is dissolving. To a considerable degree, the future is what we make it, he said. “Forces of history are bigger than all of us, but we do have a chance to mold them. Now is a molding period.” He broke his discussion into the three geographic areas: Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. He discussed the United States relationship to each and their development. close