Relations between the United States and many of its traditional European allies have been “in a crisis almost since the Bush administration took office,” said Richard C. Longworth, the keynote speaker for a trans-Atlantic youth conference held at Northwestern this weekend.
Longworth, a former foreign correspondent, Chicago Tribune business editor and executive director of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, delivered his address Friday night in the McCormick Tribune Center forum as part of the first Franco-German-American Youth Seminar.
Twenty-five students from French and German universities met with 35 Northwestern students to discuss relations among their respective countries in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which was widely unpopular in much of Europe.
Longworth, Medill ’57, discussed the potential impact of this year’s U.S. presidential election on American foreign policy.
President Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, represent distinctly different philosophical approaches to the world, Longworth said.
Bush represents the tradition of “American exceptionalism,” which emphasizes America’s unique role in the world, Longworth said, whereas, Kerry’s policies appear to fit a more internationalist approach which characterized ideologies of the Cold War era and former President Bill Clinton’s administration.
“A Kerry administration would be different,” Longworth said, “and would likely be more sensitive to world opinion.” He also added that a Kerry victory in November would not necessarily lead to dramatic or immediate changes in U.S. foreign policy.
“Even if Kerry wins, things won’t change overnight,” Longworth said.
Nastasja Schnorfeil, 23, a Berlin native who attends the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, said she was surprised by the outspoken criticism of the Bush administration’s policies as heard from Longworth and various American students.
“The people seem quite critical, more than I was expecting,” Schnorfeil said. “I’m quite glad to realize that there is a conscience within the American population about what’s happening in the world.”
Music and Weinberg junior James Smith said he was impressed by Longworth’s authoritative discussion of the issues, though he said he thought the speech was tilted politically.
“It was clearly, obviously somewhat liberal, but very well founded and in no way anti-conservative,” Smith said. “He wasn’t up there on his liberal soapbox, bashing the Bush administration.”
Political science Prof. Michael Loriaux, the seminar’s coordinator at NU, said he was impressed with Longworth’s analysis and called him a “terrific observer” of Europe.
Loriaux said he was also pleased with the level of discussion and interaction between the American and European students.
“The meetings are long and intensive, but my first impression is that the meetings are very successful,” Loriaux said. “The tone and content of the discussions is quite knowledgeable and at a high level.”
The four-day conference, organized by the Franco-German Youth Office’s newly-formed U.S. Scholars Program and NU’s French Interdisciplinary Group, could be the first in a series of seminars to be held at universities across the country.
“This is an experiment,” Loriaux said. “Depending upon (the Franco-German Youth Office’s) impressions of this experiment, they will choose to multiply this experiment, modify it.”
Although Loriaux said he does not expect any “revolutions in relations” to result from the conference, he said he does believe it will be a positive experience for the participants — both American and European.
“I expect that you’re going to have 60 people that have a more sophisticated understanding of each other, an understanding of the place they’re coming from, and a greater capacity to converse and debate with each other,” he said.
