Eurozone's Debt Crisis and US Strategy: A Return of Geopolitics for Europe

The unveiling of the debt crisis in Europe brings forward a resurgence of the forgotten discipline of geopolitics along with its significance as a credible analytical tool in present transatlantic foreign policy analysis. Up until very recently one of the most unpopular and outdated intellectual concepts in contemporary Europe. The period of uncertainty which started in 2009 has included strategic tensions between European powers which have paved the way for introducing a new geometry of state relations that will continue altering the balance of power among key EU regional groupings. The aim of the paper is to provide a conceptual framework upon which, the predominance of the creditor-debtor divide rather than a consistent European wide response to the crisis, apart from sustaining systemic ambivalence, structural vulnerability and loss of confidence, above all introduces elements of geopolitical uncertainty. Due to the creditor-debtor relationships and not any other form of geopolitical frictions, a number of core EU balances have been broken down which affect intra-European power correlations and progressively pave the way for the evolution of geopolitical dilemmas impacting both on Europe and the US (indicative examples will include the Franco-German axis, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and China). On top of that, growing US concerns over the strategic implications of Europe’s debt crisis and the geopolitical necessity for maintaining an unbroken and coordinated Atlantic West, increase the need for combining a forward thinking transatlantic analysis. In this regard, the methodology that is followed sheds light on how the Ukraine crisis symbolizes a policy shift and a definite signal of changing geopolitics by the US for: a) effectively address the linkages between economic and security issues in the EU context, b) progressively establish a functional balance of power that keeps Europe united and capable of sustaining its slow but determined pro-integration drive.