Europe's relationship with America is intimate and yet troubled. Some have predicted that the expanded European Union (E.U.) of twenty-five countries, reaching from the Atlantic to the Russian border and with a population of 460 million people, a common currency, and aspirations for a common foreign and defense policy, will emerge as a powerful competitor to the United States. European resentment of American political, economic, and military predominance is real, and disputes have multiplied over a wide range of issues, from Iraq to the International Criminal Court to genetically modified foods. Many foreign journalists, authors, and politicians offer strident criticism of American policy, and it is by no means excessive to ask whether the United States and Europe may now be on the verge of a divorce in which their alliance of more than half a century collapses or they even become great power rivals.