„Europe might have a new phone number, but when Obama calls, the person on the other end of the line will still be unable to act. ‚Europe‘ will not be a unified entity capable of coordinating a unified policy in Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, the Middle East, or anywhere else anytime soon. Europe cannot, in short, become America's full partner in foreign policy.
And thus we are left with a curious situation: America no longer wants to be the sole superpower. The American president no longer wants to be the leader of a sole superpower. Nobody else wants America to be the sole superpower, and, in fact, America cannot even afford to be the sole superpower. Yet America has no obvious partner with which to share its superpowerdom, and if America were to cease being a superpower, nothing and no one would take its place.“
ANNE APPLEBAUM am 24. November 2009 in ihrer wöchentlich erscheinenden Kolumne in der „Washington Post“; sie bezog sich darin unter andere auf die Wahl von Herman Van Rompuy zum Präsidenten des Europäischen Rates.
