U.S.-Europe ties being eroded

Walking along the Seine towards Place de la Concorde, you can't help but notice the herd of gendarmes standing almost shoulder to shoulder behind metal gates on the far right side, past the Obelisk of Luxor given to Louis Philippe by the Viceroy of Egypt, Mohammed Ali.

Together with police combat vehicles they are all safeguarding the vast U.S. Embassy on the corner of Champs Elysées and Avenue Gabriel. It's a disturbing sight to say the least, and certainly a sharp contrast to the grandiose Place de la Concorde.

But it's not an unusual sight. Travel anywhere in Europe today, and you are almost certain to encounter a similar set-up - a U.S. embassy guarded to the teeth. Even in quiet Ljubljana, the capital of a small pacifist Alpine country about to enter both Nato and the EU, the section of Presernova Road which passes in front of the U.S. embassy is barricaded off to public and guarded by special police units.

Sure, Europe has seen this before: about 15 years back. But then the barbed-wire embassies were not America's, but the Soviet Union's. At that time, it made sense; such was the way of the Soviet Union. But it makes no sense to watch the "land of the free" curled up into a fortress today. The image goes against the very foundation upon which America was built.

Undeniably, there is a serious disconnect between Europe and America today that goes beyond Iraq and beyond terrorism. The misunderstanding is more fundamental, but also more subtle. It's the difference in the relationship each has with fear.

Americans, on their part, are obsessed with fear. Or so it seems from the point of view of a European. This is partly due to the fact that Americans by nature are dramatic - it is not for nothing that "Oh my God..." should precede every other sentence - but mostly because since the attacks of September 11, American think tanks, best sellers, news, and academic icons have been telling them they should be afraid.

Europeans, rather than listen, mock the Americans. At the same time, the European media and non-governmental policy sector tend to shy away from fear or from even arousing fear.

It is possible that Europeans are complacent and naïve for not emphasising more the very threat posed by the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, but it is also possible that Europe is rational in treating total security as illusionary.

Either way a great deal has been said about the "Euro wimps". Certainly, there is something also to be said about American relationship with fear, and the society's tendency to over-react.

Fear is an unnatural state of mind and, above all, a dangerous one. It leads to an exaggeration of the actual. So when American foreign policy operates from fear, Europeans are right to worry and complain. Sure, America is under threat, but security is a relative matter, and there is no leak-free security system.

In general, defensive schemes have been but reactions to attacks, and the attackers have always found a way around the defence. Europeans came to terms with this long ago. Their history, from the Trojan Wars to World War II, indicates that over-reliance on defensive measures yields limited security.

Yet it was the fear that Germany would invade again that forced France into spending mountains in the mid '20s on erecting a defensive posture - the Maginot line - that ended up failing miserably. (The Germans moved their forces around it.) At the same time, this French fear of Germany growing strong again was partially responsible for keeping Germany in economic disarray - a condition that eventually paved the way for Hitler's rise.

That fear is engrained deep in American subconscious. Just look at how Americans bid each other goodbye: "Take care." Why do Europeans prefer "Cio" or "Salut"? Or how Americans react to threat alerts, which by now are almost a weekly thing in the U.S.?

They run their local food-suppliers dry of duct tape, bottled water, batteries, and canned food. They make "suspicious" individuals take off their shoes at airports. Why don't Europeans do the same?Still, American fear is selective. The same year September 11 happened, America recorded 15,980 homicide cases.

How come Americans aren't more scared of guns? Soon, San Francisco could be a city under water if ocean levels keep rising. Yet, Americans hardly notice global warming, let alone fear it.

What about the impoverished southern hemisphere; the next breeding ground of America-haters and anti-Western radicals? This problem too, it seems, is somehow escaping the American fear radar. Or the fact that Russia remains the single biggest concern for proliferation of WMDs.

Russia possesses several thousand nuclear weapons and a vast stockpile of fissile material necessary to make nuclear weapons.

Never before has such an enormous inventory of nuclear assets existed in such precarious circumstances: security at many of Russia's nuclear installations remains questionable at best, non-existent at worst; and many of its top nuclear scientists are scraping a living. Why not worry about Russia?

So fear then really is just a relative thing. And if it is relative, then it must be subject to artificial manipulation. Maybe the Europeans are right after all when they wonder whether American fear of terrorism and Saddam is but a manipulation of an American media determined to sell the government line at any cost. Or maybe America in general just has to become less afraid.

And let's not be simplistic or emotional and blame the Europeans for not considering Saddam a threat or seeing the need to confront the Iraqi despot. In fact, many do. Europe today - "new" and "old" - understands the problems associated with hermetic regimes such as Saddam's Iraq, and the irrational risk that goes along with tolerating such regimes.

But they conduct their risk assessment soberly, not out of fear. For the time being, it is unlikely that Europe and the U.S. will see eye-to-eye on this. And as a result, the transatlantic relationship is looking at more rough times ahead.

The writer is an advisor on transatlantic issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, and an affiliate of Washington's School of International Service.