This month, the G8 meeting, the NATO summit in Istanbul and the EU-US summit will all allow deeper reflection on the nature of the relationship between the United States and European nations. It should be a moment to lift our eyes above the headlines of Iraq and for pro-American Europeans and pro-European Americans on either side of the Atlantic to argue back against those who indulge in an orgy of mutual denunciation.
Well before I became a British government minister or the world was changed by September 11, I published a comment piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about relations between Europe and the United States. In February 2001 I wrote that ‘I sometimes have the impression that Americans come from Mars and Europeans from Venus and ne’er the twain shall meet.’
