Abstract
The end of the cold war with the collapse of the Soviet Union enabled the emergence of the United States as a hegemonic power. At this time Realist Theories in International Relations predicted that a counterbalancing coalition should soon be organized. The European Union appeared as the most probable counter power, with France as leader of this coalition. However, other theories of international politics (Constructivist ones) suggested that such a dramatic change in European-American relations was unlikely because of shared values and beliefs between the two continents. But September 11 2001 attacks produced the most significant change in the U.S foreign policy since a generation and soon major shifts would appear, the quarrel over whether or not to wage a war in Iraq being the last and most important crisis between the ‘old trans-Atlantic partners'. The provocative statement I have chosen to quote in the beginning of my paper has been made by Robert Kagan in his article "Power and Weakness", first appeared in the June/July 2002 issue of Policy Review. In 2003, the author has quickly expanded and released it in a book form under the title "Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order." Robert Kagan's essay claims to offer an analysis of the current malaise between Europe and the United States. His reasoning is based on the idea that the US is the “Power” maintaining its predominant position through a Hobbesian use of force, while Europe is living in a Kantian world in which its “Weakness” appeared through its inability to cope with the anarchical menaces of the global world, and its reluctances to try to. For this reason, Kagan even went as far as to say, “It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world, or even that they occupy the same world”.
