EU Policy and US Strategy towards the Persian Gulf – Different Approaches for Common Goals?

Despite the deep differences shown during the 2003 Iraqi crisis, European Union (EU) expresses a joint policy towards the Persian Gulf. This is essentially based on the equation: “economy” = “development” and so “security and stability”. Economy is the tool which is really trans-European: it means that despite some different approaches on few geopolitical issues of its members, it remains the fundamental pillar on which a real “European Foreign Policy”, can be built. During the last years, this particular approach allowed EU: i) to start a fruitful discussion with GCC countries about a Gulf currency union, ii) to discuss about a free trade area with the GCC countries, iii) to start negotiations for an EC-Iran Trade and Cooperation agreement, iv) to involve Iran, Iraq and Yemen in this process. All these actions will allow EU to create an area of dialogue, cooperation and exchange, and so a new wider space of cooperation. While European Union has chosen a “more economic” approach, US policy towards the Persian Gulf is “more politic” and strictly submitted to the US national interest, which is a missing factor in EU. The US equation is: “freedom and democracy” – even coercively imposed = “security and stability for a specific area” = “security and stability for US”. But in some parts of the world this strategy showed some imperfections (Afghanistan), demonstrating its fallacy (Iraq). This because, in some cases, US applied a political model, which doesn’t reflect the social and political realities and doesn’t respecting the historical roots and heritages of the area.