One can even say that the European Union has slowly become a “normative” force in the world in reaction to the evolution of America’s power. Europe has long known that it could never balance America in the realm of “hard power”; but, with the decline of America’s “soft power,” it became more important than ever to incarnate the “humane” and law-abiding face of the West.
人们甚至可以说，欧盟已经缓慢地成为世界上相对美国实力演进的“名义”力量。欧洲长久以来知道它在“硬实力”上永远不可能与美国分庭抗礼；但是，随着美国“软实力”的衰落，体现西方的“人性化”和遵守法律就比以往更为重要。