The ProblemThis global conflict affects every region of the world - in ways that are both obvious and not so obvious. Consequently, Step 9 examines the challenges America faces in six fronts in the War for the Free World:
A. Turmoil in the Mideast and its Periphery
Iran. The oil-rich Islamofascist regime in Tehran is a threat to the United States, its people and vital interests in the region and elsewhere. The character of the ruling mullahocracy is not an accident: It derives from the fact that the political role of Iran's clerics directly contradicts the teachings of Shi'a Islam. This is why the regime's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, created his version of the fascistic Islamist ideology, which Iran then spread by means of terrorism.
Terrorism is in fact the regime's most successful undertaking:
- Iran's war against America, begun nearly than three decades ago, is responsible for the deaths of over 1500 Americans - more than any other terrorist organization or sponsor prior to 9/11.
- Iran is responsible for developing Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the most highly developed terrorist organization in the world.
- Most ominously, Iran may be on track to acquire nuclear weapons in the near future. In light of the mullahs' stated intention to share nuclear technology with other Islamic countries, the threat posed by a hostile Iran represents a ticking time-bomb.
Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royal family is the primary supporter of the strain of Islamofascism known as Wahhabism. We cannot afford to assume that the United States and Saudi Arabia share a true alliance on issues of terrorism.
Much like the Soviet sponsors of global communism in the last century, the Saudis promote Islamism by providing:
- funding
- direction
- intelligence
- diplomatic cover
We must not be confused by the Saudi regime's relentless pursuit of its own home-grown Islamists, who are labeled "deviant elements." In fact, these terrorists' only "deviation" is their challenge to the ruling family.
Meanwhile, the government, royal family, clerics, businesses and "charities" of Saudi Arabia continue energetically spreading this intolerant fascistic doctrine. They remain blithely unconcerned about the violence generated by this toxic political ideology - as long as it occurs outside the borders of its own kingdom. Indeed, it would be scarcely as dangerous to America and other freedom-loving nations without Saudi state-sponsorship.
Pakistan. Formerly one of the success stories of the developing world, Pakistan under Islamofascism has been delivered to seemingly unending poverty and despair. The grim economic realities feed into an all-too-familiar death spiral, typical of Islamist societies:
- Ideological indoctrination replaces education in Koranic madrassas (and in some formerly secular public schools, as well).
- Students graduate ill-equipped for employment - other than jihad.
- The economy continues to nose-dive, eliminating job opportunities that might compete with the terrorist recruiters.
Turkey. As in Pakistan, Turkey's traditionally secular educational system is being steadily supplanted by madrassa-style schools, whose only instruction is the Koran as interpreted by the Islamists.
Tens of thousands of these madrassa graduates hold government jobs, replacing experienced, secular staff.
Four thousand madrassa graduates have packed Turkey's secular courts, in effect transforming them into instruments of Shari'a religious law.
In 2006, over a million students are expected to graduate from these ideological schools.
Moreover, the government has managed to take control of the Turkish media by threatening to expropriate their operations. One conglomerate ally of the Islamists owns at least ninety percent of the nation's press outlets.
Israel. Israel is an asset, not a liability, in this War for the Free World, an island of democracy surrounded by varying shades of tyranny. At a time when we are trying not only to defend the Free World but to expand it, America's interests are best served by firmly aligning ourselves with the forces of freedom and democracy throughout the world.
The Islamists' ultimate enemy is the one nation most capable of thwarting their designs - the United States of America. Israel is seen as a creation of the West, a tool used by the United States to control the entire region, and hence referred to as the "Little Satan."
It would be disastrous for the United States to acquiesce in the dismantling of the Israeli outpost of the Free World. Doing so can only embolden the Islamists in their determination to destroy the "Great Satan."
Contributors: Alex Alexiev, Kenneth Timmerman, Dr. Michael Rubin and Caroline GlickB. Africa: The Islamist Wedge
Sub-Saharan Africa is an extremely tempting target for the Islamist agenda. A Muslim population of about 250 million offers a massive base from which to draw support. Its natural resources are immense. And, because of the almost complete neglect of the region in Western security circles, the Islamists have been able to operate there in relative obscurity.
Porous borders, with easy trade in illicit arms, coupled with weak or corrupt political and financial institutions, create an ideal operating environment for Islamists.
Al Qaeda (along with other terrorist organizations) is believed to be using the notorious "blood diamond" trade - in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Congo - to finance its operations.
By funding radical mosques and madrassas, and indoctrinating African clerics, the Islamists are steadily eliminating the tolerant and moderate traditions of African Islam.
The most commonly employed tactic is to try to establish Shari'a law in a given region (most successfully in Nigeria), creating a separate legal system for Islamic communities. The opposition is portrayed as restricting "Muslim rights," and the Islamists emerge as champions of Islam - eclipsing the more moderate Muslims.
Of special concern are the ominous strategic ties that are developing between the radical African National Congress-led government in South Africa and Islamofascist Iran and Libya. For example, two prominent Islamist organizations in South Africa are funded by and responsive to Iranian intelligence: the radical group Qibla and its violent vigilante offshoot, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD). And Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi is forging a north-south axis from Tripoli to Cape Town aimed at dominating the African Union and the continent.
Contributors: Christopher Brown and David McCormackC. Asia: On the Brink
The Islamofascist movement has found a potentially formidable supporter and ally in China - an alliance based solely on a shared enmity for the United States.
China's ambition is to displace the United States as the world's preeminent economic power and, if necessary, to defeat us militarily. As it prepares for military conflict, China is pursuing every avenue of strategic political warfare, including by cultivating close relations with:
- Vladimir Putin's Russia
- The imams of Iran
- The Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia
- The mullahs of Sudan
- Hugo Chavez in Venezuela
- The military junta in Burma
- Kim Jong-Il's North Korea
- Fidel Castro's Cuba
China's de facto alliance with the Islamists is designed to bleed and demoralize the US in advance of a future Sino-American conflict. Moreover, by offering cash, arms, and political protection to key targeted nations, China secures access to oil, natural gas, coal, and other fuels. Control of these energy resources can someday translate into significant strategic advantage relative to the US. Such deals also serve to prop up and strengthen despotic regimes.
At the same time, the Chinese government is also preparing for war, not only in Asia but globally as well.
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) fosters instability across Southeast Asia by supporting military aggression, terrorism, and narcotics trafficking.
China is engaging in a massive high-technology and offensively oriented military build-up - particularly of its missile, naval and air forces.
Chinese military capabilities are being relentlessly enhanced by an ever-closer strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing and by technology theft and espionage in the United States and other Western nations.
In 2005, Beijing and Moscow engaged in joint war games - in which their common enemy looked a lot like the US.
Contributors: Al Santoli and Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu (USA Ret.)D. Latin America: the Re-emergence of Totalitarianism
Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, is Fidel Castro's most successful and most dangerous pupil. The under these two autocrats, the Venezuelan-Cuban partnership is posing a growing menace to the stability, tranquility and prosperity of the region and to American interests there.
An ex-paratrooper, Chavez was imprisoned for leading an unsuccessful coup against the democratically elected government of Venezuela. Released from prison, he ran successfully for President on a populist platform promoting property confiscation and obsessive anti-Americanism.
Venezuela, with the largest petroleum reserves in the hemisphere, supplies much of our imported oil. Unlike Castro, or even his Soviet sponsors, Chavez has an almost endless supply of cash to finance political parties, revolutionary activities, and terrorists.
The Chavez presidency is systematically installing a new despotism:
- Venezuela's new constitution (approved by just thirty percent of the electorate) gives Chavez wide and effectively unchecked powers to tax and spend, seize private property, and limit freedom.
- Chavez unconstitutionally declared a national emergency, suspending and finally sidelining the elected Congress.
- Every element of Venezuela's political infrastructure has been politicized and cleared of potential dissidents (including: government departments, currency boards and banking structures, police forces, the educational system and independent labor unions).
- Chavez stacked the courts with loyal judges and purged the military of anyone he thinks might oppose his orders.
- His administration has imposed gun control, ensuring that only its supporters are armed.
It has also severely restricted freedom of speech, most recently by banning any public or private expression of opposition to the government. It is now a crime in Venezuela to criticize the president.
Only the Catholic Church, a steadfast opponent of the regime, remains outside the government's control - for now.
Under Chavez, Venezuela is funding militantly anti-US political movements across the hemisphere. For example, Chavez's government:
- Provides funds, protection, and military support to the FARC narcoguerrillas of Colombia.
- Helped overthrow Bolivia's elected, pro-American president, in 2003 and in 2005.
- Finances political subversion in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay.
- Provides Venezuelan identity papers to many hundreds of Islamist extremists, to allow them to enter the United States.
- Outside of the hemisphere, Chavez has forged relationships with the Islamofascist network.
- Chavez has signed treaties for "technological cooperation" (read, weapons transfers) with the terrorist regimes of Libya, Iran, and Syria.
- Iran, Libya, and North Korea have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuela.
Today, the United States finds itself increasingly isolated in the American hemisphere. While the governments of Communist China, Libya, and Iran are hailed as heroes and partners, America is routinely described as an "evil" nation with an imperialistic plan.
Contributors: Michael Waller and Thor HalvorssenE. Russia's Emerging Autocracy
Vladimir Putin is resurrecting a system in which the Kremlin once again dominates all aspects of Russia's political and economic life.
The deputy chiefs of the Kremlin administration, Igor Sechin and Viktor Ivanov, are former KGB men.
Half of the members of the Security Council are former officers in the police, military, or FSB (the unreformed successor to the KGB).
Nearly 70 per cent of all senior regional officials are former officers.
Putin is recentralizing political control, in violation of the Russian constitution, by replacing previously independent, elected regional governors with handpicked cronies - who will ultimately install their own appointees as local officials (including mayors).
Control of the media proceeds apace. Putin has brought all national television and most important print organs under state control. Reportedly, 130 journalists have been murdered in Russia since 1991, making Russia one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
Internationally, Russian initiatives echo the hostility towards the United States of the Cold War era. For example, the Kremlin is aggressively deploying and selling advanced maneuvering and hypersonic ballistic-missile warheads - marketed explicitly as weapons designed to overcome America's nascent anti-missile defenses.
Putin personally presided over Bezopastnost-2004, reportedly the largest simulated nuclear attacks on the United States since 1982 when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin, and is pressing ahead with the construction and fueling of a reactor at Bushehr that will likely help advance the Iranian arms program.
Russia is also abetting China's ambitions to challenge and, if necessary, to defeat America militarily.
Contributor: David SatterF. Europe Comes Undone
Europe today is facing a political "perfect storm" - a combination of critical socio-economic and demographic challenges, a dramatic military decline, and an emerging Islamist presence.
The ambitious European project is today in shambles. As early as the mid-1990s, Europe was already falling behind the US in economic growth; the social market model has proved counter-productive to economic growth. Government expenditures reach as high as 50% of national income. Business is over-regulated. Labor unions inflate pay-scales, rendering companies and industries uncompetitive and contributing to huge unemployment. Excessive social-welfare benefits, sustained by exorbitant tax rates, reduce incentives for employment.
And the proposed EU constitution signals that Europe will probably see still more socialism - and less market.
Over the past ten years, Europe has experienced an annual deficit of over two million births below replacement levels; population is projected to decline by as much as 150 million by 2050, a decrease of one-third of today's population. Long before that, low fertility will result in an elder-skewed demographic that will undermine the pay-as-you-go welfare system and cripple European economic competitiveness.
Failed immigration and integration policies may present an even bigger political challenge, in light of the extensive radicalization of Europe's burgeoning Muslim population, currently between 15 and 20 million.
Islamofascism is fast becoming the dominant face of Islam in the EU. This profoundly anti-Western ideology, supported either directly or indirectly by Saudi sources, rejects such fundamental Western values as democracy, secularism, and human rights. If the trend continues, Western Europe will be seriously challenged to preserve its character as a modern, democratic, and secular polity.
Unless it can address these challenges effectively, the European Union is poised to become, in the coming decades, a strife-ridden, second-rate power, either unwilling or unable to help defend the Free World.
Contributor: Alex AlexievWhat Needs To Be DoneA. Defend and Foster Freedom in the Middle East and Its Periphery
Iran
Millions of Iranians are desperately crying out for secular government. We should heed their call and adopt a comprehensive strategy designed to help them bring down an Islamist regime that poses a mortal threat to them, and to us. The following are among the essential components of such a strategy:
- Make freedom in Iran America's declared policy.
- Do as Reagan did. We must seek to delegitimize the Tehran regime in every possible venue.
- Pursue two tracks. The new policy would have both economic and political elements.
- Develop intensive public diplomacy and strategic communications.
- Confront Iran's nuclear threat.
Saudi Arabia
The Saudis must be made to understand that we can no longer tolerate their active support for our enemies. They must take concrete steps to curb the further spread of Islamofascism and, specifically, they must end their material role in underwriting and otherwise enabling it. If the Saudis fail to take such steps and persist in unacceptable behavior, the United States must be prepared to impose the following sanctions:
- Reduce the status of bilateral diplomatic relations.
- Place Saudi Arabia on the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.
- Freeze Saudi assets in the United States.
- Work with Shiites in the oil-rich eastern region who seek to break away from Saudi Arabia.
- As a last resort, seize Saudi oil fields and other critical energy infrastructure.
The message should be clear. These are steps we do not wish to undertake. We are fully aware that the repercussions of any such sanctions could be traumatic for both nations - and the world beyond.
Pakistan
America's long-term security, as it relates to a nuclear-armed, Islamofascist-dominated Pakistan, cannot be based solely on a relationship with that country's current President. Several steps need to be taken while the opportunity exists to work with Gen. Musharraf:
- Cut off Saudi funding for Islamist operations in Pakistan, as an essential first step.
- Support a serious effort by Gen. Musharraf to rebuild - outside of the government's control - Pakistan's former civil and democratic society.
- Press for a government-wide effort to purge itself of Islamists.
In Pakistan as elsewhere, a proper US political warfare strategy must be designed and implemented to counter the domestic appeal of the Islamist message (
STEP 8: Wage Political Warfare).
Turkey
As elsewhere in the Mideast and its periphery, the United States must help those moderate Muslims and others in Turkey who are bravely resisting the Islamists and their policies of political repression, religious intolerance and economic impoverishment.
Turkey would also benefit, in the long run, from a cut-off of the "green money" and other subversive funding from Saudi Islamists.
Turks would be better able to resist the Islamofascist onslaught if the United States begins to wage effective political warfare on behalf of freedom, in Turkey and in the region.
The West, however, has one other, extraordinary opportunity to have an impact on Turkey's future course: Millions of Turks want to become part of the European Union, recognizing that membership will open up enormous economic and other opportunities. The Europeans should make it clear that Erdogan's Islamist takeover makes Turkey's EU bid a non-starter. Such a message could prove decisive in pulling Turkey back from the abyss and restoring to the Free World a valued ally.
Israel
As a relatively young, but highly advanced state, Israel is an example of what is possible in the region for a free and democratic nation. Unless and until Iraq provides an Arab example, Israel remains the only nation in the Middle East that demonstrates what people can do if afforded political and economic freedom.
Thanks to Israel's geographic location and experience, it is in a unique position to provide both a physical platform for American operations and - one of the most important resources for this war - human intelligence.
Israel is an island of democracy surrounded by varying shades of tyranny. At a time when we are trying not only to defend the Free World but to expand it, America's interests are best served by firmly aligning ourselves with the forces of freedom and democracy throughout the world, including in Israel.
B. Counter the Islamofascists and their Friends in Africa
The US policy posture in Africa today is reminiscent of the British policy of the mid-19th Century that came to be known as "Masterful Inactivity" - a hands-off attitude that, in the end, facilitated Russia's conquest of almost all of Central Asia. For us to persist in such a posture today would be bad news not only for our own interests in the continent, but also for the peoples and nations of Africa. We must, instead, take the following sorts of measures:
Support the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI). Islamist Libya, however, should not be allowed to participate.
Develop public diplomacy as part of a tailored political warfare strategy against the Islamofascists and their allies in Africa.
Redirect official development assistance funds to underwrite TSCTI and public diplomacy.
State-to-state diplomacy also provides an avenue to combat the Islamist phenomenon. Efforts must focus on choking radical Islam of its authority and popularity by, among other things, applying pressure to states outside of Africa - most especially, Saudi Arabia - that export Islamism to the region.
Engage the battle. More than anything else, the United States and its people must recognize that we have long been targets in ideological wars for the hearts and minds of Africans. This will require placing our efforts in Africa on a true War Footing.
C. Thwart China's Ambitions for Hegemony in Asia and Beyond
In order to mitigate the danger posed by Communist China and, with luck, to help the Chinese people free themselves from the odious regime in Beijing, the following initiatives must be adopted:
1. Encourage Change in China
We must use political warfare techniques to mitigate the danger posed by the government of China. Fortunately, there may be an opportunity in China today for a successful political transformation strategy.
Support Taiwan. The best model for the sort of change that would make a real difference for the Chinese people, and for the rest of us, is the Chinese democracy on Taiwan.
We should try to identify, encourage and strengthen pro-freedom and democratic groups within China. That may mean, as it did during the Cold War, publicly recognizing those who have had the courage to resist the regime and who have been punished for it - dissidents, political activists, journalists, scientists, etc. We must find ways of engaging in subtle but effective "strategic communications" with dissidents and their potential supporters.
Along with Japan and South Korea. we should begin developing a strategy for the end of the Kim Jong-il regime in North Korea, which could come about suddenly and far sooner than many "experts" predict.
2. Deter China
In conjunction with its political warfare strategy, the United States is going to have to work hard - particularly with the other demands on its military forces at the moment - to establish a more formidable forward presence for the Free World in East Asia. Components of such a posture should include the following:
- Station more military assets (ships, fighter aircraft, bombers, logistical units, etc.) in or rotate them through Guam, Japan, Singapore and other friendly nations.
- Put China on notice that the inevitable result of its continuing aggressive behavior and military build-up will be to drive other states in the region to acquire their own nuclear deterrent capability.
- Encourage Taiwan to provide more fully for its own defense, notably by increasing its spending as a percentage of GNP and initiating immediately the long-overdue modernization of its armed forces (including the purchase of weapon systems offered by President Bush in 2001).
- Increase bilateral military-to-military ties with Taiwan.
- Foster three-way defense relationships and exercises with two of the Free World's most important outposts in the region - Japan and Taiwan.
- Develop and exercise contingency plans for implementing President Bush's commitment to defend Taiwan, including deploying sea-based missile defenses.
- Encourage other democratic regional powers (notably, South Korea and India), to join us in our commitment to prevent a successful attack on Taiwan.
3. Cultivate India
We must build on the efforts made to date by the Bush administration in developing our mutual interest in countering the growth of Chinese power in Asia. At the same time, care needs to be exercised about compromising US security interests.
4. Utilize America's Economic Leverage
Components of such a strategy might include the following:
- Americans should approach their state pension systems and other fund managers to insist that their hard-earned retirement and other investment dollars not be used to purchase the stock of large Chinese state-owned enterprises.
- US investors should divest immediately their equity holdings of any publicly-traded Chinese companies doing business in genocide-ridden Sudan and terrorist-sponsoring Iran.
- Businesses in the US should be encouraged to diversify their international investments and overseas commercial partnerships with Indian and South East Asian entrepreneurs, rather than deal largely - still less, exclusively - with China.
- China's activities in Central and South America, the Middle East, and Africa must be more closely monitored and US policies crafted to publicize and challenge them.
- The US Congress must become more actively involved in shaping US-China policy, particularly in the areas of trade, acquisitions in our country, the defense of Taiwan, meaningful sanctions for proliferation abuses, and championing human liberties and the free flow of information.
The United States hardly needs a new enemy at this point. It is a mistake, however, to think that we can neutralize an emerging adversary by choosing to overlook it. We will not avoid a military conflict with Communist China simply by hoping that it will not occur - or, worse yet, by thinking that we can appease the PRC.
D. Counteract the Reemergence of Totalitarianism in Latin America
American leadership must expose Hugo Chavez and his agenda as a threat to the Free World. We must assist those inside Venezuela and Cuba who are on the frontlines in opposing the Chavez -Castro axis, and we must assist the resistance elements in countries threatened by Chavismo before it is too late, by implementing the following steps.
1. Design and implement a political warfare strategy to empower the Venezuelan people and to undermine the Chavez government. Elements of the needed political warfare strategy include the following:
- Sustain and protect the democratic and human rights movement in Venezuela that provides a viable alternative to the dictator.
- Make a far more concerted effort to help dissidents who have had the courage to stand up to Chsvez and Castro.
- Expose Chavez's efforts to silence his opposition, by calling attention to such abuses as the false arrest of the movement's leaders.
2. Strengthen the Organization of American States (OAS).
Invoke the Organization of American States' Democratic Charter, violated by the Chavez regime on dozens of occasions, to demonstrate support for the cause of anti-Chavez Venezuelans, and to pressure other freedom-loving nations to address the illegitimacy of Chavez's rule.
3. Engage in public diplomacy in the region. We need to reconstitute the necessary communication tools for building relationships with the publics in countries where the US still has friends - and where it might someday need them.
4. Help stop Islamist infiltration. Islamist terrorists are now finding safe haven, logistical support (including, false Venezuelan identity papers) and other assistance from the Chavez regime. We need to work with others in the region - especially non-Muslim Arabs and non-Islamist Muslims - to ferret out and neutralize this threat.
5. Give the native peoples of Latin America an alternative to Chavismo. The only real answer to the poverty exploited by ideologues like Hugo Chavez is the creation of wealth. The Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) provides a model for transforming the lives and conditions of millions of Andean peoples in the Western hemisphere.
6. Individual Americans can help by becoming part of the solution. Individual Americans can play a direct role in winning the War for the Free World against Hugo Chavez and his allies, through the following steps.
Make sure your elected officials do their job.
Don't fund terrorism. The Venezuelan regime owns Citgo Petroleum Corporation. Every time an American fills his tank with Citgo gasoline, he hands cash to Chavez.
Reach out to dissidents via the Internet. Independent blog sites, such as
http://www.vcrisis.com/, are crucial to finding out what is happening and how best to help.
Support resistance to the regime. To find out more about how you can help, contact the US-based Atlas Foundation for Economic Research, which is devoted to assisting think-tanks throughout the world. (
http://www.atlasusa.org/) for a full directory of the freedom-based movement in Latin America. Other useful sites include:
Pressure the media.
The media has, by and large, given Chavismo a free pass. Hugo Chavez's scandalous record is public and must be widely and relentlessly exposed.
Latin America must be considered one of the most important fronts in the War for the Free World. What happens there can affect us directly and materially - whether by disrupting our markets or oil supplies, through socially disruptive, illegal migration flows, or through negative strategic developments. We cannot hope to win this war unless we help secure our neighbors against the combined ideological assaults of a homegrown Chavismo and imported Islamofascism.
E. Challenge Russia's Emerging Autocracy
Moscow and Washington today have greater grounds for common cause than at any time since World War II. Specifically, both have much to fear from Iranian and other forms of Isalmofascism, as well as from the burgeoning ambitions of Communist China.
As long as Putin fails to recognize these realities, however, President Bush - who once famously declared that he has "looked into Putin's soul" and found him "trustworthy" - would be well advised to reconsider that judgment. Putin can be trusted only to do one thing: to pursue relentlessly his quest for power. US policy must be designed accordingly.
Specifically, we should do the following:
1. Support the rule of law. The United States needs to insist that selective prosecution for political purposes is a violation of the rule of law.
2. The US needs to make clear its opposition to Putin's undermining of Russia's democratic institutions.
3. Russia's strategic drift - most especially, its arms developments and sales - must be recognized as unfriendly to the United States. That will require us to reassess the bilateral relationship and to consider necessary steps to counter these Russian sales and their military implications.
4. The United States should exert pressure for a political settlement of the Chechen war. Allowing the conflict to continue will further drive Chechen and other Muslims into the arms of Islamofascists, providing Putin with additional pretexts for restricting democratic liberties in Russia.
F. Salvage Europe
Europe's inexorable decline is a troubling development for the United States. There is not much America can do to address the deeply systemic nature of the continent's problems, but we should stand ready to offer our assistance whenever possible.
1. The United States must contemplate a future in which Europe is no longer the reliable ally, philosophical soul-mate and fellow-pillar of Western civilization that it has been for the past two centuries. In the worst case, some regions or countries of an Islamicized Europe could conceivably become an adversary, in the longer term.
2. It is likely that the European Union will splinter economically and politically in the coming decades, abandoning even the pretension of being a monolithic power. The United States should continue to offer friendship and assistance to those Europeans that share our vision of freedom, individual responsibility, and opportunity.
3. A closer, specialized relationship with the United Kingdom and the Eastern Europe countries (for example) would include political, economic, and military ties, as well as policy coordination. Out of this initiative, a new alliance could someday emerge - and expand beyond the borders of Europe.
