EU and US - Security relations and the New Transatlantic Agenda. Two case studies

After the end of the Cold War, the United States and the countries of the European Union have engaged in a process of re-evaluating their mutual relations in the context of radical changes in international relations in general.

On both sides of the Atlantic, politicical decision makers arrived at the conclusion that continuing close cooperation would be of great importance, especially with a view to confronting and tackling newly prominent security risks together. Both the Transatlantic declaration of 1990 and the agreement for a New Transatlantic Agenda and a Common Action Plan of 1995 are based on this conviction.

Theory and practice of transatlantic relations tend to diverge, however, as is demonstrated in the two case studies of this essay which deal with European and American approaches to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the handling of rogue states Iran and Libya, respectively. Even if a large degree of consensus can be reached about the aims to be pursued, with regard to the choice and implementation of means persistent disagreements and even frictions between the transatlantic partners tend to be the rule.

It remains doubtful whether institutionalising transatlantic cooperation will contribute to the solving of this - old - dilemma.