Six Dimensions of the Growing Transatlantic Divide: Are the US and Europe Definitively Driving Themselves Apart?

This chapter explores whether the transatlantic will divide further deepen—in the end even threatening the cohesion (and existence) of NATO—or is this divide only the product of specific historical circumstances and will many of the disparities and misunderstandings disappear as was so often the case before in transatlantic relations. To analyze this growing transatlantic divide, this chapter discusses six dimensions of the drift: the transatlantic perception gap; transatlantic capabilities gap; transatlantic attitude gap; transatlantic value gap; transatlantic religion gap; and transatlantic strategy gap. The chapter argues that some of these divides have a temporal character and may be bridged over time. Other divides, however, seem to show a more structural character, as is the case with the value gap and the religion gap. Europeans doubt the consistency of the US strategy. Europeans fear also the risks of an armed conflict in this turbulent part of the world.