Rebuilding the Transatlantic Partnership: US-EU Relations in the Post- Iraq Era; Strategy research project

摘要

The relationships between international actors are always subject to different circumstances that affect their interests and behaviors. The relations between the United States and the European Union (EU) are not an exception to this rule. However, the history and the future of the US and the EU are so much tied together that both need to understand each other to confront jointly their common challenges and interests. The US-EU partnership has gone through different phases, some tense and some more friendly. Although the transatlantic gap was already a fact before 9-11, the reactions on both sides of the Atlantic to the unprecedented terrorist attacks on US soil did not fix or improve the fragile link, but rather weakened it further. However, the second Bush administration has provided a new scenario for improving or, at least, stopping the growing divergence that had become a trend in US-EU relations. There is no doubt that the willingness for renewed and improved relations between the US and the EU already exists. Both parts now have the responsibility to rebuild a robust relationship and to create opportunities to reinforce a partnership that is vital for a better and more secure world.