Obama’s European adventure

President Obama traveled to Europe to strengthen old alliances and build consensus on how to handle issues of joint concern.

President Obama this week traveled to Europe to strengthen old alliances and build consensus on how to handle issues of joint concern, including negotiating with the Afghan Taliban and ousting Libyan despot Muammar al-Qaddafi. His triumphant one-day visit to Ireland (see Best columns: Europe) was followed by royal pageantry and a state dinner at the queen’s London residence, Buckingham Palace. But after the pomp came politics.

Presenting a unified front, Obama and Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron said in a joint appearance that the West’s best response to the democratic movements sweeping the Middle East was support and encouragement, not military intervention. The Arab Spring was also high on the agenda at this week’s G8 summit in France, where Obama and other world leaders were to create an aid plan for Tunisia and Egypt loosely modeled on the U.S. postwar Marshall Plan for Europe.

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