The love of Mars, mythology tells us, was Venus, in whose arms he found peace. America's relationship with Europe since World War II is not dissimilar to that of the Roman deities. Europe, conscious of the ravages wars have wreaked on it, has pursued a pacifist course. It has been able to do this by maintaining a close alliance with a United States much more comfortable with using military force to achieve its goals. The fruits of the Mars-Venus marriage have been half a century of relative peace and prosperity.
But new fault-lines are opening, placing the partnership under strain. America may still be the world's only military superpower in 2009, but it will probably find its economic might equalled or surpassed by emerging giants like China and India. The transatlantic partners will find themselves tempted to stray from one another by the fruits of...
