President Obama’s failure to either attend or send a high-level representative to the march against terrorism that drew many of the world’s leaders to Paris last week has stirred a firestorm of comment. In a rare moment of contrition, the White House spokeman admitted error, agreeing that a higher-profile United States presence had been warranted. The appearance of the president himself probably would have been disruptive because of the security footprint that surrounds him, but someone of rank higher than the U.S. ambassador to France should have been there. Using the phrase “Lafayette, we are not here,” commentators are calling this a snub of our oldest ally.
It’s more than that.
I spent much time dealing with Europeans as a result of some of my Senate assignments. Since leaving the Senate, I have joined the board of the German Marshall Fund, a think tank created by a large financial gift given to America by a grateful German government on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Marshall Plan. I have met a number of European leaders and still have the opportunity to speak with many of them on a fairly regular basis.
The European economic bloc is our largest trading partner. There is more American money invested in Europe, and more European money invested in America, than is the case with any other economic or political combination. European leaders pay close attention to American politics.
It is no secret that the vast majority of Europeans were so disillusioned with George W. Bush that they rejoiced when President Obama replaced him. Indeed, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize simply for not being George W. Bush. European leaders were very optimistic that the new president would pay more attention to Europe than Bush had done.
Those hopes have not been realized. When it began to become clear that Obama was not all that interested in strengthening ties between Europe and America, European enthusiasm for the president once hailed as a hero began to wane. When he publicly announced that American economic policy would “pivot to Asia” on the eve of one of his trips there, Europeans asked me, “What does that mean? Will there be a deliberate shifting of American attention away from Europe?” I couldn’t give them definitive answers to their questions because Obama never made it clear what sort of “pivot” he had in mind. In some circles in Europe, Obama became as big a disappointment, if not bigger, than Bush.
That’s why the failure to send Vice President Joe Biden or Secretary of State John Kerry or even Attorney General Eric Holder to the Paris demonstration against terrorism is more than just a snub of the French. Many Europeans believe that it confirms their worst suspicions: that the Obama administration isn’t aware of what’s happening in Europe and doesn’t care, because it believes that Europe isn’t very important any more.
Those suspicions are clearly not true. American policymakers still have a full appreciation for the importance of Europe as our largest trading partner and the vital role European nations play as our most reliable allies. The marriage of common interests and common values between America and Europe is not going to break up over this.
Nonetheless, in any marriage, neither partner wants to be taken for granted. By misjudging how Europeans feel after experiencing what they see as their 9/11, Obama cast himself as the husband who was too busy at the office to attend his wife’s birthday party but did send a staffer to give her a card. It won’t cause a divorce, but it will be remembered.
Robert Bennett, former U.S. senator from Utah, is a part-time teacher, researcher and lecturer at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.