Obama and Europe

Another good article from today's FT taking a look at how the relationship between the US and Europe will change with the new administration, and how the US may ask difficult things of its European allies.

With Barack Obama’s arrival in the White House on January 20, differences between the US and Europe are likely to narrow on policies ranging from climate change to detention of terrorist suspects at the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. As a result, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic – the alliance that won the cold war and which still represents the most significant economic relationship in the world – are looking forward to working together more closely than they have for years.

All the same, Europe is about to discover yet again that America can be an uncomfortable ally. Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, warns of “a very real risk of excessive expectations”. But he adds: “There will be an eagerness in many capitals around the world for President Obama to succeed ... because of a recognition that these extraordinary, difficult and multitudinous problems are not going to be amenable to solution unless there’s mutual effort and American leadership.”

On issues such as Guantánamo Bay and Afghanistan, the US is likely to make painful requests of the Europeans, requests that will be all the harder to ignore precisely because of the philosophical convergence between the two sides. Difficult strategic decisions await on topics such as Iran, the Middle East and Russia. All the time, Europe and America will have to work closer than ever on the issue Mr Obama identifies as his biggest challenge of all – the economic and financial crisis.