Old Europe (politics)

Old Europe is Europe of an older historical period, as opposed to a newer historical period. The term has been used in various historical contexts.

The term attracted an attention when it was used by then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in January 2003 to refer to democratic European countries before the fall of Communism in Europe, after which a significant number of new members have eventually joined NATO, European Union, and other European bodies.

In other usages it refers to Europe as the "Old World" as opposed to America as the "New World" or, in Marxist usage, to Europe in the expectation of Communist revolutions.

On January 22, 2003 Rumsfeld answered a question from Charles Groenhuijsen, a Dutch journalist, about the potential US invasion:

Q: Sir, a question about the mood among European allies. You were talking about the Islamic world a second ago. But now the European allies. If you look at, for example, France, Germany, also a lot of people in my own country -- I'm from Dutch public TV, by the way -- it seems that a lot of Europeans rather give the benefit of the doubt to Saddam Hussein than President George Bush. These are U.S. allies. What do you make of that?

Rumsfeld: Well, it's -- what do I make of it?

Q: They have no clerics. They have no Muslim clerics there.

Rumsfeld: Are you helping me? (Laughter.) Do you think I need help? (Laughter.)

What do I think about it? Well, there isn't anyone alive who wouldn't prefer unanimity. I mean, you just always would like everyone to stand up and say, Way to go! That's the right thing to do, United States.

Now, we rarely find unanimity in the world. I was ambassador to NATO, and I -- when we would go in and make a proposal, there wouldn't be unanimity. There wouldn't even be understanding. And we'd have to be persuasive. We'd have to show reasons. We'd have to -- have to give rationales. We'd have to show facts. And, by golly, I found that Europe on any major issue is given -- if there's leadership and if you're right, and if your facts are persuasive, Europe responds. And they always have.

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