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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 25, 1984
PAGE 11
in the absence of fundamental change in the Soviet Union and its
European objectives. Although he is well aware of the obstacles
to a better alternative--a return to the building of a truly
united Europe, self-sufficient militarily and speaking with one
voice politically--that is the direction he would choose. But
the real choice, he figures, will be made by Britain and France.
If they are not prepared to move in that direction too, "then the
neutralistic tendencies in the Federal Republic will grow." That
course may not be unrealistic, says Mr. Wallmann, although "there
have been times when German politics were not always free from
hopes and utopian dreams."
As author Geyelin observed, Germany's angst is also Western Europe's. The
old world, writes Scott Sullivan in the May 7 edition of NEWSWEEK, is
suffering from a "Pacific Nightmare."
Implicit in meeting the Asian
challenge is the need, more than ever, for Europeans to unite!
The suspicion is growing that Europe's familiar map of the world
--a Mercator projection, with Europe smack in the center and the
faraway Pacific region as a vague bracket around the edges--is
becoming ominously out of date. More and more, European acade
mics and policymakers are contemplating� world map in which the
vast Pacific Basin holds center stage, while Europe shrinks to�
small and distant excrescence .2!! the Asian landmass••••
Academic and governmental preoccupation with the Pacific region
has engulfed Europe in the past few months. In late March the
French news magazine L'EXPRESS ran a long cover story on "The
Pacific, the New World Axis." Bookshops are crammed with new
titles like "Asia on the March," "Japan Versus Europe" and "The
Pacific: the New Center of the World." European cabinet mini
sters are setting off almost weekly on huckstering tours to
Bangkok, Canton and Seoul. Last week the West German government
opened a $20 million industrial fair, its largest ever, in
Tokyo••.•
To some extent, the new European obsession with the Pacific..•re
calls the wave of jitters that washed over Europe in the late
1960s because of what was then perceived as a formidable "Ameri
can challenge" to European financial and industrial independence.
But the "Pacific challenge" of the 1980s, as many alarmed
Europeans see it, transcends simple economic considerations. And
it is far more troubling than the American threat ever was. It
amounts to� potentially permanent shift in the global center of
gravity that could leave . Euro ge an isolated � lar � ely irrele
vant backwater. Underlying this apocalyptic vision is the wide
spread perception that the United States is gradually turning
away from its traditional allies and trading partners in Europe
and concentrating its attention on the Pacific Basin•••.
There is, as yet, no coherent European response to the obvious
challenge. At the recent Pacific Basin seminar in Paris, one
Asian speaker after another rose to describe the region's throb
bing dynamism.
The Europeans had little more to offer than
handwringing. Fritz Bolkenstein, a foreign-trade official from
the Netherlands, for example, complained that Europe was incap-