Are the United States and Europe heading for divorce?

If current headlines are to be believed, the United States and Europe are n ot just drifting apart. The question is, how serious is the rift? There are major differences between them-including differing regional priorities, di verging issue agendas and fundamentally different approaches to meeting the challenges of the post-Cold War period. These differences suggest that the US-European relationship will continue to drift. Although continued drift has its costs (notably in the missed opportunities for cooperation on a hos t of international issues), the US and Europe should recognize that this ch ange in the terms and nature of their relationship is made possible by the very success of their fifty years of partnership, which has produced a Euro pe that today is more peaceful, democratic, and united than at any time in history.