Fifty years have passed since the first steps were being taken for the establishment of what we now call the European Union. Those days, the idea received the positive reaction of Americans. However, today the attitude has undeniably changed. There is this widespread belief that the united Europe will be a hard rival that will challenge the global role of the United States. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and start of an end to the Cold War era, Europe was no longer accounted as a steadfast ally of the United States. The European Union is believed to maintain a blend of competition and cooperation with the United States over some determining global and regional issues.
There was a time when the United States could refer to Europe as its protective shield; but today it holds enough interests in Europe to regard it as a geopolitical foothold. It is then no surprise that the United States should be concerned with a balance of power along the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Nullification of the Warsaw Pact and downfall of communism in the Eastern Europe led to some sort of uncertainty in terms of geopolitics and security. On the other side, Europe’s less-than-perfect crisis management vis-à-vis the heart-rending examples of Bosnia and Kosovo between 1992-1999 helped the United States reiterate that European countries could use a partnership with America in enhancing peace across Europe. In spite of their technological and economic capabilities, European countries have not had a reliable performance in restoring continental security when unrest hits.

To practice their independence in the areas of defense and security, and to prevent the United States from taking full control of crisis management, European countries took the initiative of establishing the European Army. This move was expedited with such bitter experiences as Bosnia and Kosovo. There is this increasing awareness that Europe will be playing a more effective role in the global arena once it can restore peace across its own continent.
As disagreements between the United States and Russia intensified over the 1972 ABM agreement which banned the development of anti-missile defense systems, Europeans took the side of Russia. The EU is concerned that the U.S. policy will threaten the stability of disarmament accords between America, Russia and Chechnya.

A Deal with Iran: Aside from the military disagreements, there come differences over issues of global economy. There are currently new technical-economic institutes being formed around Europe that are not under the influence of the United States. As these institutes keep growing and prospering through dynamic business performance, there is little that the U.S. can do to stop them. Economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran, Cuba and Libya were the main causes behind this development. Finally in 1997, the EU’s resistance against U.S. sanctions paid: America lifted its sanctions over European companies that were investing in Iran. On the other side, there was the objection voiced by American companies which forced the U.S. to lift the sanctions on food stuffs, drugs and agricultural produce exported to Iran. As American companies keep falling further behind their European rivals, Iran keeps opening its projects to Europe.
Companies from France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and England have so far signed huge contracts with Iran in different areas with a main focus on the development of oil and gas fields. This was referred to as yet another failure for the international policies of the U.S. which intended to limit energy companies, American or multinational, in doing business with Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. Today, only American companies are subject to this law to further lose the Iranian market.

Competition Intercontinental: Apart from disagreements over international trade, Europe and the U.S. have had to deal with other issues over their own mutual trade systems. Import of the U.S. banana, meat and beverages to Europe became anther fight. It mostly started when the E.U. countries decided to buy banana from their Caribbean suppliers instead of the former U.S. broker companies. America, in return, retaliated by imposing customs tariffs on some of the commodities exported by Europe up to 100%.
Article 301 of the U.S. Trade Code allows this country to unilaterally impose sanctions on countries in case of trade disagreements. Meanwhile, trade partners of this country believe that this article is a blatant violation of the WTO regulations. Some members of the European Parliament also disclosed that Americans have tapped the telecom systems to check the business conversations of major European companies.
To this end, analysts state that after the cold war, Western countries have lost the motive to coordinate their intelligence efforts against a common enemy. Economic and political competition, they point, is therefore replaced coordination over many areas. In an age when military race has been replaced by economic competition, rivals prefer penetrating into each other’s markets rather than outgrowing each other in military might.
Finally, the latest U.S.-E.U. disagreement goes back to the WTO summit in Seattle where the Americans’ insistence upon expediting globalization of economy and trade put a dead-end to many discussions. As the U.S. tried to push the WTO in its own direction, several issues were left on the table. These included export of foodstuffs, genetic materials, agriculture subsidies, meat and banana among others.
A decade has passed since the downfall of communism which raised the interest of the U.S. to work more closely with Europe. This cooperation, however, is undoubtedly overshadowed by seeking interests beyond the framework of friendly relations.