Alliance getting its act together

James Kitfield:

When the history of the West's long war with violent Islamic extremism is finally written, the current period of turmoil and setbacks may be marked as decisive. In the past year, a radical ideologue has risen to power in Tehran, proposing to wipe Israel off the map and provoking a showdown with the international community over Iran's possible quest for nuclear weapons. In the Palestinian territories, democratic elections swept the Islamist militant group Hamas into power. In Iraq, a badly stretched U.S. military and its coalition partners have proven incapable of stemming the mounting sectarian violence pushing that nation toward civil war.

In Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO forces have confronted a resurgent Taliban and a marked increase in suicide bombings in recent months that bear the indelible signature of Al Qaeda. Both groups and their fugitive leaders are thought to have found sanctuary in the lawless tribal lands of neighboring Pakistan -- a Muslim country and the possessor of nuclear weapons that remains one successful assassination attempt away from chaos and potential radicalization.

In Europe, Qaeda-affiliated terrorist cells have struck repeatedly since 9/11, with major attacks in Madrid, London, and Istanbul. More recently, France was forced to declare a state of emergency late last year to stanch countrywide riots by its disaffected Muslim youth, and cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad that were published in a Danish newspaper recently sparked worldwide protests from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur. Those protests left 11 people dead and included the first-ever mob attack on NATO troops in Afghanistan, where five Norwegian soldiers were injured in the northern town of Maimana.

Confronted by these divergent crises, a Western alliance already weakened by divisions over the Iraq war might have retrenched or splintered even further. Instead, Washington and the capitals of Europe have responded to the mounting pressure by forging a degree of strategic consensus not seen since shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The essence of that accord is the belated recognition that united the Western alliance stands, divided it could fall.

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Signs of greater strategic cooperation are evident on numerous fronts.

The West's recent response to Iran's nuclear brinkmanship has so far stood in stark contrast to its response to the Iraq war, when France and Germany eventually sided with Russia and against the United States. Recently, Paris and Berlin have joined the United States and Great Britain in taking the crisis to the U.N. Security Council to bring greater pressure on Iran, despite the resistance of Russia and China. Meanwhile, Western nations have largely spoken with one voice in denouncing Russia for temporarily cutting off European energy supplies over a price dispute with Ukraine in January. And within the alliance, members have been offering blunter criticism about Russian President Vladimir Putin's backtracking on democratic reforms.

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There is much more.