NSA SURVEILLANCE DAMAGES THE REPUTATION OF AMERICA

The Obama administration has found itself trying to placate the leaders of closely allied nations who have discovered the extent of NSA surveillance in their countries. The flood of spying scandals raises the question over whether the negotiating edge such secret eavesdropping provides is worth the reputational damage to Washington.

The U.S. has clearly overlooked the damage that revelations of spying are doing to important relationships. French and German protests could lead to demands that anti-surveillance measures be included in a proposed transatlantic trade treaty. Already the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties has voted to approve new data protection rules that are aimed at curbing U.S. spying activities and restrict transfers of information from Europe to third countries. The measure makes America's secret court orders powerless, forcing companies based outside the EU - such Google and Yahoo - to comply with European data protection laws if they operate in Europe. Any company failing to comply with these regulations could face fines of 5% of global revenue. That means, based on its current revenues, Google could get fined $2-3 billion for an infraction. The document – which had earlier received a record-breaking 4,000 amendments - is likely to be further changed later. To come into force, it has to be approved by the Parliament’s plenary as well as the EU’s 28 members. Many Europeans are outraged by revelations that American companies – including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo – are required to share massive amounts of EU citizens’ personal online data such as e-mails, Web searches, phone calls and video chats with the National Security Agency (NSA).

The potential benefits of collecting intelligence on nominally friendly leaders has to be weighed against the potential blowback if the operations are exposed — which in the Internet era has become increasingly likely.

The core issue here is not about surveillance practices per se but rather the mentality that has facilitated those practices. America continues to strut around the globe with a sense of impunity — with the attitude that its unchallenged power insulates it from any lasting harm that might be caused by offending others. In other words, the American mindset has long been and continues to be: we can get away with anything.

The assumption that America's allies need America more than America needs them will eventually no longer hold. Indeed, in many ways it does not hold now.

The U.S. government and U.S. companies will no doubt continue to fight against the imposition of these regulations, but as much as Americans may be in the habit of scoffing at European power, the fact is America is only two-thirds the size of the EU. The megalomania of NSA notwithstanding, the interests of 500 million people can no longer be trampled on so easily in the name of America’s national security interests.