And trade contiues to go on between the EU and the US, Putin...

I can see where Germany and France might be disgruntled by the US...period, yes, but defintiely economically, but even so, that HAS to be outweighed at some level by the idea that a union between the EU and US and Canada would effectively be the single strongest controlling body on the globe.

Chiona wouldn't have a CHANCE against the combined political and economic power of the two together...

I'm not saying the EU should allow the US to ever join--neither side would want to join, and...well, it's the EUROPEAN Union, and America's in North America, so that's a bit of a misnomer right there.

But a Western Union isn't that far off of an idea...obviously NATO exists strategically, and the G-8, with the exception of Japan, is made up of European/North American nations, and that deals with the major economies (minus China, but, again, this is a Western thing...)

So, essentially, what I propose is a sort of merger of those two ideals:

A merger of the strategic alliance and allegiances in the West as evidenced by NATO and the economic unions as shown by the G-8?

That covers the politics and economics...throw in the fact that, again, North America and Europe essentially have a shared cultural background--the Dutch, Spanish, English, French, and so on all colonized both America and Canada, and any cultural gap between two nations can be bridged by a third in the group, ie, even if there are disconnects between the US and France, Canada and the UK could help bridge that gap--and, I say it again:

A Western Union built on the cornerstones of shared political, economic, and cultural backgrounds, futures, and interests should and, I believe, will come of age in the next century, especially if Indo-Chinese domination of the marketplace continues to expand.