Allies at Odds?

Why, despite their similar goals, do the policy preferences of the European Union and United States diverge on so many multilateral issues? To answer that question, Allies at Odds? thoroughly examines recent international efforts in arms control, environmental protection, human rights, and military cooperation. Evidence from 20 separate cases supports the expectations of the realist approach to international politics, which focuses on the role of power above all. Neither cultural factors nor international institutions have as much influence as some expect. This finding was as true during the Clinton Presidency as during the Bush, indicating that focusing on personalities overlooks more substantial and longer-lasting differences between the Atlantic allies.

"Allies at Odds is an extremely impressive and timely inquiry into the recent strains in the Transatlantic alliance. The book investigates the troubling reality that Europe and America, despite their professed similarity in goals, have increasingly drifted apart in their preferences on multilateral issues since the end of the Cold War. To explain this puzzle, Mowle deduces hypotheses from the realist, liberal institutional, and epistemic theoretical approaches and applies them to four multilateral issue areas: arms control, the global environment, human rights, and military cooperation. He finds that realism best explains the behavior of the United States and, surprisingly, of Europe as well. All serious students or international relations and practitioners of foreign policy will want to read and come to terms with the analysis presented in this concisely written and well-argued book. "

- Randall Schweller, The Ohio State University

"Major Mowle's well-researched and challenging study deals with an urgent and widely discussed problem in international relations: why, despite their professed similarity of goals, do the policy preferences of the European Union and United States diverge on so many multilateral issues? It is a model of political science analysis, involving the testing of hypotheses deriving from a range of theoretical approaches. One strength of the volume is the diverse range of case studies examined - from arms control and military cooperation to international treaties, from legal and human rights issues to scientific and environmental policy. The application to these different issues of the same methodological controls constitutes something of a tour de force. This is a volume which will appeal both to students and to the wider public." - Jolyon Howorth, Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics, University of Bath, Visiting Professor of Political Science, Yale University

"Even before the Iraq War, the trans-Atlantic relationship was adrift on stormy seas. In Allies at Odds, Thomas S. Mowle uses realist, institutionalist and epistemic international relations theories to explain why the United States and Europe increasingly are at odds, and to predict the future course of the relationship. Given the real-world events that are the backdrop to this study, Allies at Odds is a timely and useful analysis that is both theoretically rigorous, and policy relevant."

- Christopher Layne, Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute

"Finally, amidst the numerous recent works aspiring to tell the story of transatlantic security relations, a major monograph which compares the utility of various theoretical lenses in explaining these relations across a broad swathe of issue areas. Recommended reading for all those who wish not merely to know what has happened, but also to start thinking about what it all means for our understanding of international relations more generally."

- Anand Menon, Director, European Research Institute, University of Birmingham.

"This is an excellent analysis of a topical issue. The dispute over policy on Iraq has turned into the most serious transatlantic dispute since the days of Vietnam, and raises important questions about the values and goals of Americans and Europeans. Thomas Mowle provides illuminating insight into differences over arms control, the environment, human rights, and military cooperation, and offers some thought-provoking conclusions about the way that Americans and Europeans view each other, and about how they see their own place in the global system."

- John McCormick, Indiana University, Indianapolis

THOMAS S. MOWLE is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University and has also taught at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. He is also a Fellow with the European Union Center at the University of Oklahoma, USA.