Former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin spoke Friday morning to University students and faculty on the need for cooperation between the United States and Europe.
Jospin, a member of France's Socialist Party who served as Prime Minister from 1997 until earlier this year, opened his remarks by noting the preeminent position of the United States in the world.
"America as a superpower is a reality we will have to live with for quite some time," he said. "Power always creates a temptation to dominate."
Jospin's lecture focused on the implications of America's superpower status and its relationship with the rest of the world.
He gave the War on Terrorism as an example of potential international cooperation, but said a unilateral American war with Iraq could end up doing more harm than good.
The War on Terrorism is complicated by the fact that the ideological roots of Islamic fundamentalism come from Saudi Arabia, an American ally, and Osama Bin Laden, if alive, is likely in Pakistan, another American ally, Jospin said.
"When identifying the enemy we must avoid narrow points of view and shortsighted historical contexts," he said.
Jospin retired from politics this year after placing third with 16 percent of the vote in the French presidential election.
Besides speaking on war and peace he also addressed a host of other issues affecting the international community, including poverty, economic policy, environmental protection and cultural homogenization.
"To deal with these questions we need the cooperation of the United States," he said.
American leaders tend to think in terms of threats, while European leaders tend to think in terms of problems, he said.
While acknowledging the merits of each of these perspectives, Jospin said the American threat-based attitude does not always get at the root of problems.
"One cannot cure the ills of this planet by only treating the symptoms," he said.
He said the European Union's multilateral, cooperative approach offered a model for solving the world's problems.
"Europe is perhaps the first example in history of a non-dominant superpower," he said. "It no longer has the reflexes that come along with might."
Jospin spoke before a near-capacity crowd in Old Cabell Hall, as part of the "America in the World" lecture series presented by the University's Center on Religion and Democracy.
"It seemed to us, especially since September 11, but going back to the end of the Cold War, there has been this question of what would America's role in the world be," said Joseph Davis, co-director of the Center on Religion and Democracy.
Other speakers at the two-day event that took place Thursday and Friday included journalist Robert Kaplan and Harvard Prof. Samuel Huntington.
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