The EU and the future of transatlantic relations

Abstract

1. The falling-out between and among the members of what was the transatlantic community over the recent Iraq conflict is not an accident after which there can be a return to the old consensus. There is, of course, on both sides of the Atlantic, a need to limit the damage done, by demonstrating mutual respect and exercising rhetorical restraint and pragmatic cooperation. The common task of consolidating Iraq after the war offers a chance for putting this into practice. But this does not remove the deeper reason for the transatlantic rift: On the fundamental issue of how to promote international order in the twenty-first century, most if not all European countries no longer see eye-to-eye with their major security partner, the United States.