These European concerns must be addressed by those who would commit the United States to deploying a missile defense. Achieving a deal with Russia on modifying the ABM Treaty would ease many of Europe's more immediate political concerns. Deploying a defense shield that covers not just the United States, but allied territory as well, would ease Europe's fear of the strategic consequences. Toward a New Balance A decade after the Cold War's end, the time has come to move away from American dominance and European dependence toward a genuine strategic partnership. Such a partnership would serve both sides equally well.
More issues unite than divide the two.
Both sides of the Atlantic share a commitment to market democracy and to the underlying values that have given rise to it over centuries. But the relationship between the two sides of the Atlantic needs to be updated to reflect these realities-by a Europe more able and willing to take on the tasks of promoting common security and by a United States more willing to share in the responsibility for and leadership of any such effort. Ivo H. Daalder is a senior fellow int eh Brookings Foreign Policy Studies program. The Press Page has information on other periodicals and books published by the Brookings Institution.