Basic HTML Version
.,.
PAGE 18
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 8, 1986 �
The fact that Europeans have largely been content to allow
Americans and Soviets to dominate world affairs, as well as
those of Europe, should not obscure the material power of
Europe•••• Individually, as industrial powers, the West
European states are in the second rank. Yet•••if the European
Community is considered all together, it makes up the most
powerful economic and industrial combination on earth.
Common
American perceptions of Western Europe as a comparatively weak
and declining force in world affairs are justified neither by
the indices of productive power nor those of potential military
strength.
The
military
capacity
of
Western
Europe,
collectively, · is equivalent to that of either of the
superpowers--should the Europeans wish to make use of it.
� quiet Europe, a politically withdrawn Europe, has suited
nearly everyone over the last 415 years--most of alTthe West
Europeans themselves,�ho'--ri'"ave"" greatly profited from the
tranquil life by mkaing themselves rich and materially
secure•••• What happens in Europe decides the global balance of
power. Europe is. the pawn always capable of becoming a queen.
Napoleon said oT Cnrnatnat one should let it sleep, -because
the world would be sorry when it awakened. The place of which
that really is true is contemporar� Europe--occasionally
shifting, murmuring, stirring in its postwar slumber, dreaming,
perha ps.
� �-
--Gene Hogberg, News Bureau