(•()KKi:si»()M)i.N( i:nLetter from Europe: Blending MayonnaisenWhile Europe Crumblesnby Allan C. CarlsonnTo state that the Atlantic Alliance isndeeply troubled raises few eyebrowsntoday. Yet a firsthand look at the wearinessnbesetting the West is still unsettling.nConversations in Rome, Paris, and Londonnthis March with European journalists,nacademics, and politicians left thenimpression that the forces dividing thenAlliance—economic nationalism, thenscramble for the short-run advantage,ncultural lassitude—are now strongernthan those holding it together. Only fearnof the void which the collapse of thenWestern alliance would leave now bindsnup the dilapidated system; its animatingnspirit seems nearly dead.nIn one respect, this state is puzzling.nFor just as in the decade following WorldnWar II when the pillars of Atlanticism—nthe North Atlantic Treaty Organization,nthe Organization for Economic Cooperationnand Development, and the EuropeannEconomic Community (EEC)—nwere set in place, the Europeans facendomestic challenges highlighting thencontinued importance of the Americannconnection and the practical necessitynof common response. Nonetheless, eachnnation seems to be turning sullen andninward.nRecession has engendered the femiliarnstrains. While the United Kingdom resemblesnthe U.S. in showing early signsnof economic recovery, 3.5 million Britonsnremain out of work and on that nation’sngenteel dole. An enormous, presumablynLabour-erected sign tallying the 400,000nunemployed in London alone hauntsnParliament from across the Thames.nMargaret Thatcher’s success in reducingninflation and nearly balancing her budgetnis overshadowed by an inability tondo much about Britain’s low productivitynDr. Carlson is editor of Persuasion AtnWork.n4SinChronicles of Cttlturenlevels and her reluctance to tackle thatnland’s real economic monsters: the nationalizednindustries.nMeanwhile, the Italian and Frenchneconomies remain stalled. The Era, oneneconomist suggested, has become “anjoke currency.” Inflation in Italy remainsnin double digits. If personal encountersnwith several furtive men along Rome’snVia Veneto are any indication, exchangencontrols have lifted the street value ofnthe U.S. dollar 15 percent above the officialnrates. Italy’s welfare system grindsnalong. One out of every ten Italian adultsnis now on permanent disability; anothern25 percent receive retirement pensions.nNot coincidentally, the government’snprojected deficit for 1983 represents 15npercent of the nation’s total nationalnincome and a staggering 43 percent ofngovernment revenue. Yet while abovegroundnItaly stagnates, an undergroundneconomy booms. Nearly half of then”unemployed” in Naples reportedlynhold full-time, non-taxpaying jobs. ThenFrench, sporting an increasingly dishevelednSocialist-Communist coalition government,nseem unable to stop their slowneconomic slide. President FrancoisnMitterrand wavers, perplexed over thenfailure of his socialist nostrums and privatelynbanking on American recoveryneventually to pull France along. Thenfranc, although devalued three timesnduring the past two years, remains overvalued.nHarsh currency controls arenkeeping iU-tempered Frenchmen in thenmetropole this summer. “Social investment”nthrough the recendy nationalizednbanks, touted as a vehicle to stimulaten”high-tech” industries, has instead becomena crude tool for Chicago-stylenpatronage. Phone calls to the bankersnfrom Socialist members of the NationalnAssembly on behalf of politically friendlynconstituents vdth “worthy” projects havenbecome the sorry, albeit predictable,nmeans of “sociaUy allocating” new capi­nnntal. The lights on the Champs Elysees,ndimmed during the oil crises of the 70’s,nare bright now. Yet the gendarmes postednthere with automatic rifles symbolizenthe troubled reality within the newndemocratic socialist paradise.nTrade wars loom. The EEC, Romanneconomist Antonio Martino noted, wasnfounded on the inspiration that “tradenwill unite us, politics will divide.” Thatnspirit has faded. “The ideals of the EECnno longer exist,” stated British economistnJohn Burton from the University of Birmingham.n”Protectionism is the gravestnthreat to the survival of the West,” ProfessornMartino added. Bitter wranglingnwithin the EEC over innocuous issuesn(e.g., the content guidelines for mayonnaise)ndo suggest that the “free trade”nideal no longer unites.nEurope’s immigration problem strikesna visitor with startling immediacy. ThenFrench, while oflScially styling themselvesnas brotherly comrades of the “ThirdnWorld” and exhibiting (at least in Paris)na continued fondness for exotic complexions,nare increasingly anxious. Thenmunicipal elections held last Marchnoften turned on the race question. Evennthe Socialists now agree that “somethingnmust be done” about the flow of NorthnAfiicans and other non-Europeans intonthe country. Britain’s new NationalitiesnAct sharply restricts the access of formerncolonial peoples to fiaU British citizenship.nNonetheless, tension continues.nWhile Indians and Pakistanis seem to benaccepted (in feet, their eagerness tonwork long hours in shop and fectory appearsnto be lifting not a few Englishmennout of their security-induced stupor).nWest Indian blacks are cited in both academicncircles and pubs as “the difiiculty.”nAttending a session of the House of Lordsnone evening, I sat fascinated as thenNoachian peers engaged in heated, racetingedndebate over the maintenance ofnimmigration records on computers. Thenimmigration question is clearly heighteningnthe parochialism of West Europeannsocieties and accelerating the centrifiigalnforces aflecting the Alliance.n