Bridging The Gap

The driving forces behind the decline of anti-Americanism are not hard to discern. First among them is the departure, in 500 days or so, of Bush, the most reviled American president in European memory. Second is the fading of Iraq—not as a catastrophic problem, but as a bilateral issue that has leaders lunging at each other's throats; as French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told NEWSWEEK, "We're turning the page and finding a new spirit."

But there is also a hunger for transatlantic economic cooperation at a time when China and India are on the move; a growing European dread of Al Qaeda's terrorism; a resurgence of the European center-right, combined with the growing dominance of pragmatism over ideology, be it American neoconservatism or old-style Continental socialism. Then there's a yearning, particularly in the old Soviet bloc, to seek U.S. protection as Vladimir Putin's Russia flexes its muscles, giving rise to loose talk about a new cold war. Finally, there's an understanding, however grudging, that major international challenges, from Darfur to climate change, cannot be met without Washington's collaboration.

America has done some bridge-building of its own. Henning Riecke of the German Council on Foreign Relations notes that the Bush administration, as the Iraq debacle chipped away at America's "our way or no way" approach to world affairs, has made small but significant steps on climate change. The promise of further steps after Bush, perhaps under a Democratic president, is heartening to Europe. Washington's growing willingness, so far at least, to work in tandem with European governments on such issues as Iran's nuclear ambitions and conflict in the Middle East is also welcome in European capitals. Alex Bigham of the London-based Foreign Policy Centre argues that the aftermath of Iraq has taught the United States that "a unilateral coalition does not work" and that multilateralism can be more effective.

Sidelined by Rumsfeld's neocon Pentagon before and after the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. State Department has made a concerted effort to repair damaged transatlantic ties over the past two years. Close to the president but less tarred by Iraq fallout, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has traveled extensively in and around Europe—about 128,000 kilometers in 2007—to get European leaders back onside. "Secretary Rice's intense travel schedule and the strategic outreach to Europe that it represents have had an obvious impact," Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told NEWSWEEK. "She has made clear that we—the core democratic nations of the world—are better off tackling key issues together than on our own. And she has made clear that multilateral approaches—the U.N. where possible, NATO, and the U.S. with the EU—are options of choice, not last resort."

One of those issues is a resurgent, sometimes bellicose Russia. Indeed, Moscow's recent saber-rattling is both a reaction to the New Atlanticism and a spur for even closer ties between America and the rest of Europe. For all Putin's talk of restoring Russian might, Moscow's influence has in fact severely declined across the former Soviet Union during his seven years in power. The European Union has brought in the Baltic states as new members. NATO has not only incorporated the Baltics but also sought to forge ties with Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. U.S.-backed "color revolutions" toppled Moscow-friendly regimes in Georgia (Rose, 2003) and Ukraine (Orange, 2004).

In response, the Kremlin has behaved more and more aggressively toward its former subjects, instigating a pogrom-like shakedown of ethnic Georgians at the end of last year and a nationwide campaign of vilification of "fascist" Estonia after the removal of a monument to a Soviet soldier in April. Small wonder that remnants of the former U.S.S.R. are rushing into the arms of Europe and the United States. "Russia has tried the tools they used to scare other neighbors with—raising gas prices and then closing Russia's internal market to us," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told NEWSWEEK in July. "To everybody's surprise, that did not make us weaker. That made us stronger … We—all Russia's neighbors—are not Russian property but living, developing organisms. We are a new generation."