‘Boston or Berlin’ revisited – let’s keep riding both horses

In a speech to the American Bar Association in July 2000 the then Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Harney, made a profound observation about Celtic Tiger Ireland. “Geographically”, she said, “we are closer to Berlin than Boston. Spiritually, we are probably a lot closer to Boston than Berlin.”

The chattering classes are all for embracing ‘Berlin’ and downgrading ‘Boston’

A quarter of a century later, ‘the chattering classes’ seem to have turned against this sentiment.  For example, The Irish Times has printed a number of articles this year calling the idea into question. In April, columnist Finn McRedmond argued that Ireland – a country she sees as prone to both sides-ism – now needs to choose. How unsurprising that she plumps for the Berlin side of the equation, on the basis that Berlin, Paris and London have been much better friends (than the US) for a much longer time. Hold on: by opting for Brexit was Britian engaging in a friendly act? But I digress.

More recently, Professor at UCD Ben Tonra wrote in the same newspaper that we are not just seeing a drift in the transatlantic relationship between Europe and the US, but rather a “collapse” thereof. He pointed to a deep psychological challenge for Ireland – viz., the fact that “Many of us remain emotionally wedded to a benign image of the United States – John F Kennedy’s America, not Trump’s. Yet that America is evaporating before our eyes. Protectionism and a distrust of Europe now run deep in Congress and the wider US public. Nostalgia can’t blind us to these new realities.”

Now, one can readily agree that Trump – especially Trump 2.0 – is posing really severe problems for the transatlantic relationship, whether it be through imposition of high tariffs (with a threat of more to come) or by in effect undermining the NATO alliance – e.g., demanding hugely increased financial contributions on the part of NATO members, or by threatening the national sovereignty of close NATO partners – e.g., wanting Canada to become the 51st State, and hinting strongly at being ready to take over Greenland, at Denmark’s expense. But let’s ‘go to the balcony’ about this, to use a negotiation technique. Trumpian excesses should not mean throwing the American baby out with the bathwater.

Europe will be left ‘holding the parcel’ as the US turns its attention in earnest towards the China threat and seeking closer economic ties with Russia”

Tonra derides the idea of Ireland as an “Atlantic bridge” between Europe and the United States. In his view, we need to deepen defence cooperation through EU frameworks and to diversify our trade and investment. To the latter point, one might simply say “much easier said than done”. On the defence cooperation, exactly what frameworks does the professor have in mind? To paraphrase a Justin Bieber song: ‘What (precisely) do you mean?’ Incidentally, I’ve also written a piece on the EU’s Strategic Compass (see euideas.eui.eu March 2022). The EU needs to sort itself out in this context. Most EU members are also members of NATO, but as we are seeing, that alliance is – if not tottering – very much ‘at sixes and sevens’ – e.g. in the case of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Talks are ongoing as I write, but for now it looks quite possible that Europe will be left ‘holding the parcel’ as the US turns its attention in earnest towards the China threat and seeking closer economic ties with Russia.

Geography and Spirituality

Let me return to Harney’s famous remark. The keywords are “geographically” and “spiritually”.  First, let’s look at geography. The Financial Times (FT) columnist Janan Ganesh wrote in a recent piece about links between Britain and Australia that “Geography is not everything, but it is almost everything.” That’s one of those phrases that at first sight seems really ‘deep’ – and it undoubtedly has merit. But drill down closer, and one can see that other factors are awfully important too. This can be seen in the mid-19th-century experience of Ireland itself. If geography is ‘almost everything,’ why did so many desperate Irish people flee starvation by crossing the Atlantic? And yes, many of course did go to Britain. But the fact remains that Ireland’s extraordinary links with the US are in a way a triumph over geography. The two additional factors that I would add to Ganesh’s geographical one are (i) opportunity (ii) language. America was – and still is – the land of opportunity, and a land where the language spoken was and is English (even if Spanish seems to be very much on the rise in some parts of the country, given all the ‘Latinx’ immigrants).

The Ambassador’s words are accurate. These links cannot be dismissed”

In an Irish Times article to mark Thanksgiving Day, the recently arrived US Ambassador Edward S Walsh wrote that “More than 32 million Americans can trace their heritage to Ireland, a reminder that Irish influence remains one of the strongest and most vibrant threads that built the American story”. Whatever about a perceptible decline over recent years of Irish influence in the US (I’ve written a separate essay about this) the Ambassador’s words are accurate. These links cannot be dismissed as mere ‘nostalgia’.

Attitude

What about the ‘spiritual’ dimension?  Rather than focusing on this in specifically religious terms, I would like to highlight the importance of attitude. Wolfgang Münchau – one of Europe’s most renowned and perceptive political and economic commentators – wrote about this in November in an article for UnHerd. He said that “Attitude and aptitude explain why the US and China are the sole superpowers in the 21st Century. They also explain where it went wrong for Europe. We had aptitude and still mostly do. But we lost the attitude. We (Europe) are the global virtue-signallers who lost our appetite for cutting-edge research a long time ago.” Münchau concludes on a melancholy note, saying that “It is in museums, and Grade A-listed buildings, where Europe still excels.”

Let me to conclude by making three specific recommendations as to what Ireland should do.

First, look beyond Trump. He won’t last forever.

New York is the capital of finance; it fuels innovation, investment and exceptional possibility”

Second, remember that despite all its faults, America is wonderful. If Bostonians will excuse me for mentioning the Big Apple, may I quote US politician Elise Stefanik with whom I rarely agree who said recently that New York is the capital of finance; it fuels innovation, investment and exceptional possibility. It’s that phrase “exceptional possibility” that really resonates with me. It’s why, just a few months after landing in NYC in the autumn of 2015, I was granted access to Columbia University and NYU courtesy of the MaRLI programme. Are we really going to forsake this spirit of openness for … um, Brussels?  And hey, I like some aspects of Brussels – e.g., the dame blanche is a heck of an ice cream!

Third, Ireland should most definitely keep aboard both horses – ride ’em, cowboy!!