COMMUNISM WAS THE GLUE, AND NOW ANTAGONISM IS GONE

For half a century, the free world agonized over the fearful prospect that international communism would continue to extend its octopus-like tentacles. Communism was the glue that held together two cohesive and mutually antagonistic blocs. But now the glue is gone.

Almost 50 years of us-versus-them confrontation established perilous but predictable patterns of diplomatic, political and economic conduct. With nuclear holocaust as the ultimate fear and doomsday clocks sometimes ticking precariously close to midnight, it was a scary world but it was also a simple world. Good and evil were in constant juxtaposition. Communism was the glue that held the world together. But now the glue is gone.

In Europe, Communist-suppressed centuries old nationalism percolated to the top. Yugoslavia ruptured in ancient hatreds with neo-fascists and fanatics going on a binge of butchery. Slovaks wanted no more to do with Czechs. Austrians wanted to expel Rumanians. Muslims were basically unwelcome anywhere. Albanians were turned back from Italy. Foreign workers and refugees were assaulted by neo-Nazis in East Germany. Even within a united Germany, the Easterners and Westerners found that five decades of separation had made Germans more as two than as one. Flemish=speaking and French=speaking Belgians seem headed for separatism. The Soviet Union split asunder into distrustful enclaves rumbling with deep ethnic tensions both within and among themselves.

The collective political structure of Europe began to falter. NATO and the European Community stood by in a state of political paralysis as Serbia pulverized parts of Croatia and then devoured Bosnia. Vigorous alliances that were designed to constrain the Soviet superpower were helpless to thwart a land grab by a runaway small time dictator. Simultaneously, the domestic political structure within each European nation began to weaken.

Then, last Sunday, barely half of the voters of France cast a ballot in favor of a United States of Europe with a single currency. Almost as many said "No, we don't want a scheme that will sacrifice our heritage and make a dominant Germany our boss." As Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany's highly respected retired Foreign Minister pointed out, a single currency central bank in Europe would give the Germans even more influence over the budgets and monetary policies of its neighbors than it now already possesses.

As a result of the French vote, the post-Communism new world order is a world less in order. Fear of Communism military might has been replaced by fear of German economic might. The currency chaos in Britain, Italy, Spain and Sweden that preceded the French vote will not make Europeans more confident of a German-dominated single currency in the future. The French voted Yes in a whisper. The cause of European unity needed a shout.

The Berlin Wall is down. Separation and national interest prevail over integration and collective action. The fall of Communism liberated Europe to pursue its old nationalistic habits. The economic turbulence of the new world order began as soon as the rubble of the Berlin Wall was carted off. The glue that held Europe together is gone.