Misunderstanding Europe

Abstract

American commentators castigate their European allies as economic dinosaurs, hopelessly incoherent in their foreign policy and shamefully irresponsible in their duties to NATO. AS Europe prepares to launch its single currency, U.S. critics have found yet another target. But smug assumptions of American supremacy are wildly overdone. Europe's economies are robust and their cooperation increasingly productive. Besides, America is not so hot either. Today's Eurobashing endangers the transatlantic relationship as much as European anti-Americanism once did. America should address its own inconsistencies in foreign policy while granting its European partners the respect they deserve.