Information Related to "An Overview of Conditions Around the World - Nov/Dec 2002"
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An OverView of Conditions Around the World
America and Europe: Are they drifting apart?
We see a steady growth in tension between various European nations and the United States. According to a Financial Times feature article, the "common enemy" revealed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, has "divided rather than unified the West."
Published for Americans abroad, the International Herald Tribune expressed the problem from a European point of view. "A brief flurry of support for the United States after the attacks last September evaporated because of what foreign officials consider a dismissive U.S. attitude toward international treaties and coalitions (and) a tendency to view problems through the distorted lens of the war on terrorism." The Financial Times feature countered with "Americans believe that Europeans live in a dream world, made possible by American protection."
Other articles in the Financial Times sought to take a more objective view of the growing transatlantic gap. One said: "September 11 crystallised a profound change in the relationship between Americans and Europeans. The shift - not so much a rupture but a progressive estrangement - was visible in outcome during the decade after the end of the Cold War."
Recently U.S.-EU trade disputes are back in the news as well. Earlier this year steep new American steel tariffs threatened to hit foreign steel fairly hard. Subsequently over the months the United States has tried to ease tensions with the European Union by exempting many products from the tariffs. To date, however, the EU still threatens retaliation.
Difficult-to-solve differences of outlook between America and Europe also arose at the recent Earth Summit conference in Johannesburg. In addition, there have been many difficulties over the new International Criminal Court as the United States seeks bilateral treaties with individual nations to exempt Americans from its presumed jurisdiction.
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