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Since the Bush administration entered office, differences between “Europe” and the United States have widened. The administration rejected international treaties, including the International Criminal Court and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and scuppered the strengthening of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the imposition of limits on illegal trafficking of small arms—all initiatives supported by the European Union (EU). In the immediate wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, transatlantic solidarity was
impressive, but differences quickly resurfaced. Inflammatory opinions expressed on the op-ed pages of the press on both sides of the Atlantic have contributed to transatlantic discord, and dire warnings of the “end of the West” have appeared.
Transatlantic discord, however, is not new. The EU and the United States have long had disputes over trade, dating back to the “chicken war” of the 1960s. In the late 1970s, serious tensions between the United States and its European allies over nuclear strategy led to worries about the possible break-up of NATO. In the 1980s, there were tensions over the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defence Initiative, policy in Central America, and invasion of Grenada, to name but a few cases. In 1993-94, the United States and the Europeans clashed quite openly over strategies to deal with the Bosnian war. Also in the
1990s, the EU objected strongly to U.S. sanctions on Cuba, Libya, and Iran.
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