Europe, Asia Want More From U.S. Than Mere Talk : Policy: U.S. must prove to its allies it is ready to play an important role in the new world now being created as the Cold War ends.

The band is ready to strike up the next dance, everyone is choosing partners; but hanging along the wall, fumbling and uncertain, is the old star of the floor.

That’s the picture many foreigners draw of the United States as the world prepares for a new era. In Europe, nations scramble to form fresh alliances; in Asia, the newly industrialized nations furiously trade with one another and seek a new relationship with Japan. Among the major democracies, only the United States seems to be dragging, unsure of itself and its future role. Defining that role is a major challenge for George Bush.

Recent trips to Europe and Japan reveal a deep affection for the United States. Even more than Americans, Europeans believe that the Cold War is over, with the United States the victor. They now look to America to clear up the debris--negotiating the removal of arms and soldiers from both sides. American culture carries far more mystique in both Asia and Europe than home-grown product. TV shows made in England or France, for example, are not popular elsewhere in Europe, but anything from Hollywood commands instant attention.

Still, there is a strong tendency in both Europe and Asia to say, “Those were your accomplishments of the past, and we are grateful. But we want to get on with our lives.” The United States must face up to new realities of international life:

First, old friends are now determined to take a more independent course. At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland two weeks ago, attended by 800 business and governmental leaders, Europeans made clear that, with the collapse of communism, they can now build a “common home” stretching from the Atlantic to the Soviet border. There will be rooms for both the United States and Soviet Union--but probably antechambers. And there is growing expectation among Europeans that this new arrangement, though still vague, will be a powerful new force. They envision a bloc of 25 European nations whose 480 million inhabitants number more than the United States and Japan together and whose economic potential could outstrip the other two.

In Asia, there is more reluctance to create a new trading bloc because of the overweening power of Japan and the desire to keep U.S. markets open, but the economic and financial integration of Pacific nations is accelerating. Japan is pouring loans and investments into other Asian nations; South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are also spreading surplus capital into neighboring countries.

Second, old friends worry that the United States is fading. The latest best-seller in France argues that the United States and the Soviet Union are receding in importance. “For those like me who consider industry the only durable basis for a country’s power,” writes Jacques Attali, “the signs of a relative American decline are convergent and irrefutable,” pointing out the United States seems mired in debt, speculation and drugs. He foresees two new superpowers--a united Europe, with the Soviet Union clinging economically, and a united Asia, with the United States attached.

Echoes of U.S. decline ring from Paris to Tokyo. While many prominent Americans challenge this, others are beginning to buy the notion. Clyde Prestowitz, a former Reagan economic official noted for his tough stance toward Japan, surprised the World Economic Forum with a prediction that the United States could soon slip to third among world powers.

Finally, changes in the international order are bringing rising frictions to U.S. relations with its allies, especially Japan. Poll after poll registers sharp feelings toward Japan. The latest, in Fortune, found a plurality of 44% believe Japan is America’s least trustworthy ally. It may not be long before such feelings also rise toward West Germany, now becoming the giant of the new Europe. The Fortune poll found West Germany is already second among the least trustworthy allies--singled out by 29%. Economists like to point out that America is far less threatened than it fears: Japan owns less than 1% of U.S. assets; its economy is still only 60% as large as America’s and the West Germany economy is smaller than the U.S. federal budget. But facts rarely win emotional arguments.

What all this suggests is that the United States has a huge stake in putting its own house in order. The American elite has talked to the point of boredom about problems in schools, in streets, in savings. Little has been done. Now the failures are beginning to hurt. Domestic renewal remains the No. 1 priority.

Less well understood is that Bush must convey to other countries that the United States intends to remain an active leader in world affairs and has a plan for doing it. So far, Europeans and Asians say there has been more rhetoric than substance.

Eastern Europe serves as a case in point: Bush visited Poland and Hungary last year, proclaiming America’s commitment. But the new budget calls for only $300 million in U.S. assistance to Eastern Europe, four-tenths of 1% of the Marshall Plan, measured in 1988 dollars. Japan plans more than three times that, and even South Korea is channeling more aid to Hungary. Western Europeans seize on the paltry U.S. contribution--and the scant interest of U.S. corporations in setting up ventures in Eastern Europe--as evidence that America lacks the will to remain a superpower on the Continent.

There are several international areas where the United States has asserted an interest and, if pursued, could have a major payoff. It was the United States, for example, that intitiated the latest round of international trade talks. If U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills can bring those negotiations to a fruitful conclusion, she believes there would be historic benefits for the United States and its trading partners. Secretary of State James A. Baker III is pushing to end regional disputes such as the Middle East, where peace talks should begin soon.

In fits and starts, Bush has also signaled that he wants to shape new international agreements on the environment. So far, the President has been held back by internecine warfare among his own advisers, many of them lobbing hand grenades at environmental chief William K. Reilly. If Bush can end the bickering and resolve his own doubts about global warming, the United States could put the world on a safer environmental course.

Still lacking, however, is a government organized to deal with the new world and a consensus on how the United States wants that world to look. Responsibilities for U.S. policy are divided among scores of agencies and assistant secretaries. Bush needs to put heavyweights in place who will focus exclusively on one part of the world and coordinate the U.S. response. Where are the men of stature, such as John J. McCloy and Herbert Hoover, who led U.S. reconstruction efforts in Europe after previous wars?

Equally urgent, the Administration needs a clear view of the new architecture it would like to see around the world. Baker began that process with a recent speech in Berlin--a good start but just that, a start. After World War II, the Truman Administration mobilized some of the nation’s best talent to draw up NSC 68, a document that served as the foundation of U.S. foreign policy for the next 40 years. It described in sweeping terms a plan for containing Soviet expansionism and helping the defeated powers of Japan and Germany back on their feet. That policy succeeded beyond anyone’s dreams. Now the Bush Administration, in search of “the vision thing,” needs to write its own NSC 68.