World

Playing Ball With Bush

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 13, 2001 / 10:59 AM EDT / CBS

In this news analysis, CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton says that European nations may end up cooperating with President Bush on missile defense.

It has been a hard sell for President Bush as he tries to convince America’s European allies to support his missile defense plan. There are concerns that it is too costly, that it will lead to a new arms race, and that it simply will not work.

Left-wing politicians in Britain, France, and Germany, who grew up with the “Ban the Bomb” protests of the old War days, have been playing to popular fears of a new arms race. Britain’s Committee for Nuclear Disarmament is gearing up for a new campaign. It hopes to persuade the British government to turn down an eventual Bush Adminstration request to upgrade secret American radar bases here as part of the planned missile defense shield.

But despite the protests, there are signs of a quiet change in thinking in the halls of power. European governments are beginning to realize that the Bush Administration is determined to push ahead with its missile defense project, with or without them, so they might as well play ball.

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair is ready to lend his support, despite the opposition in the ranks of his own Labor Party. Blair values Britain’s close relationship with America more highly than the concerns of his back benchers.

Tom Fenton

The French are also interested. In “Le Monde”, one of the more serious French newspapers, Laurent Murawiec, a political analyst, concludes that France would have more to gain by participating in the missile defense scheme than by opposing it.

Murawiec, who has the distinction of being the first Frenchman to work for the Rand Corporation, makes the argument that the front line weapons systems of the 20th century, aircraft carriers and heavy tanks, will be the secondary systems in the 21st Century.
The French know that if they want to be at the top table of world powers, they need 21st century arms.

Even the Russians are showing signs of interest. Andrei Kozyrev, Boris Yeltsin’s Foreign Minister from 1992 to 1996, says in another French newspaper that the choice for Russia is simple. Either oppose the missile defense project and engage in a new arms race – or push for international cooperation in missile defense and reap the benefits for Russian industry and the military. For Kozyrev, the choice is a no-brainer.

The Russians have a special interest in a missile shield, given that new nuclear powers ae proliferating in their back yard.

There may be a lot of noise from Europe about “Son of Star Wars”, but when governments start to add up the advantages and disadvantages of taking part in an eventual missile defense scheme, their attitudes may be a lot more positive than their public pronouncements to date would indicate.