Europe

Three weeks of urban rioting by thousands of children and grandchildren of post-colonial migrants have finally forced France to grapple with the bitter fruits of its fallen empire. The lesson should not be lost on any Western nation. It is encapsulated in the slogan that activists have been employing throughout Western Europe for the past few decades: "We are here because you were there."

All too often, Europeans, like Americans, speak of immigrants as if they simply showed up at… more

As the shock waves from yesterday's terrorist attacks in London -- which seem to be the work of jihadist militants -- reverberate across the Atlantic, a grim truth should become increasingly clear: one of the greatest terrorist threats to the United States emanates not from domestic sleeper cells or, as is popularly imagined, from the graduates of Middle Eastern madrassas, but from some of the citizens of its closest ally, Britain.

Richard C. Reid, the "shoe bomber" who tried… more

In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical zeal, George W. Bush declared: "Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world." The peoples of the world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world order is indeed emerging -- but its architecture is being drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which Americans have not been invited.

Consider ASEAN Plus Three (APT), which unites the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with… more

Is Al Qaeda capable of carrying out another Sept. 11 attack in the United States?

The terrorist organization doesn't appear to have sleeper cells in the country able to perform such a mission, or even capable of launching a smaller-scale operation against a "soft" target such as a mall. If Al Qaeda had this capability, its cells would have attacked either at the beginning of the Iraq war in spring 2003 or during the recent presidential election. Almost without exception, the… more

Neo-conservatives claim that the US and Europe are diverging in their values and interests. Atlanticists claim that on both counts, the US and Europe remain closely aligned. Both schools are wrong.

In their values, the US and Europe are growing closer. At the same time, their geopolitical interests are diverging. The attitudinal divide between Americans and Europeans is easily exaggerated. The influence in the US government of social conservatives in the southern and western states is grossly… more

When Europeans speak of integration, they are usually referring to nations, not immigrants; political entities, not individuals. Last Saturday, the European Union celebrated the integration of 10 new countries into what is now the largest trading bloc in the world. From Ljubljana to Lisbon, officials heralded a new era of peaceful and prosperous international cooperation. But if Europe is to continue to thrive, Europeans must begin to understand integration in a whole new way.

In a word, Europe is imploding.… more

One of America's most important voices on the American relationship with Europe is Jeffrey Gedmin, former Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative and the newly appointed Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin. In a very brief period, Jeff has transformed what was largely an antiquated and partially stale organization crafted primarily for Cold War relationship maintenance to a vibrant, provocative institution asking important questions about the stresses and strains of the evolving international system.

Europeans can be forgiven the belief that they are confronted by what the American president might call an axis of violence. Bush administration officials are hunched over maps of Iraq, planning an invasion with or without European support. In recent months the United States has repudiated all obligations to the International Criminal Court and announced that it will not help prosecutors working for that court. At home, Americans have eagerly revived the death penalty and increased incarceration… more

Earlier this month, a group of sixty American public figures issued a statement on the attacks of September eleventh and the conflicts that have followed it. Titled What We're Fighting For, the document was a measured defense of the American war against Al Qaeda and, by implication, its Taliban allies. What we are fighting for, the authors declared, are American beliefs that are also the universal principles of modern societies: all individuals possess equal intrinsic dignity; there are… more

The war in Afghanistan could become a defining event not just for the fight against terrorism but for NATO and US-European-Russian relations. Already the war has brought changes that just a few months ago would have been unimaginable. For the first time in its history, NATO has invoked Article 5 of the Washington treaty establishing the alliance -- not to defend Europe, as was originally envisioned, but to support a US war in a region far from the European theater.… more