realism is not a theory of foreign policy. To explain the behavior of individual states, we must look
to unit and individual-level phenomena.
Thus, an argument that seeks to explain differences between the U.S. and Europe in the
security arena, primarily on the basis of differences in military capabilities is inadequate. This
argument perhaps tells us why agreement could have foundered but tells us little about why, in fact,
Americans and European relations did deteriorate so significantly across a broad swath of issues.
We need to dig deeper by looking for other sources of this transatlantic divide.
The Values Gap
A second set of arguments, also echoed in Kagan’s book Of Paradise and Power, locates the
source of conflict to a widening cultural gap between the U.S. and Europe over fundamental values.
A so-called “values gap” or ideological divide between the U.S. and Europe has already become
conventional wisdom. In a German Marshall Fund-sponsored poll taken in June 2003 in seven
European countries and the United States, more than ¾ of European and Americans polled both
believe there to be a “difference in social and cultural values.”
In this constructivist explanation for transatlantic contention, differences between us derive
from distinct historical trajectories and demographic trends. We now want different things. One
expression of this view is found in Charles Kupchan’s 2002 book, The End of the America Era. Like
Kagan, Kupchan relies on the structural argument to get at the roots of transatlantic disputes.
Kupchan also argues that new value orientations in both regions are driving a wedge between us.
Forty years of integration in the shadow of World War II has created a distinctive set of preferences
in Europe. Likewise, the changing demography and base of political representation in the U.S. to
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2002b.
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Whether or not neorealism is adequate as a theory of foreign policy is discussed by Elman 1996.
44
“When asked whether Europeans and Americans have different social and cultural values, majorities on
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Convention