Contrary to an optimistic vision of a world "flattened" by the virtues of globalization, the sustainability and positive outcomes of economic and political homogenization are far from guaranteed. For better and for worse, globalization has become the most powerful force shaping the world's geopolitical landscape, whether it has meant integration or fragmentation, peace or war. The future partly depends on how new economic giants such as China, India, and others make use of their power. It also depends on how well Western democracies can preserve their tenuous hold on leadership, cohesion, and the pursuit of the common good.

Offering the most comprehensive analysis of world politics to date, Laurent Cohen-Tanugi takes on globalization's cheerleaders and detractors, who, in their narrow focus, have failed to recognize the full extent to which globalization has become a geopolitical phenomenon. Offering an interpretative framework for thought and action, Cohen-Tanugi suggests how we should approach our new "multipolar" world--a world that is anything but the balanced and harmonious system many welcomed as a desirable alternative to the "American Empire."

Cohen-Tanugi's point is not that the major trends of economic globalization, technological revolution, regional integration, and democratic progress are no longer at work. His argument is that economic globalization exists in a complex dialectic with the traditional geopolitics it has, ironically, helped to revive. This tension has created an ambivalent world that requires democracies to operate in two realms: the realm of economic integration and multilateralism--or peaceful, astrategic, "postmodern" internationalism--and the more traditional, even regressive realm of confrontation between national and regional strategies of power fought against a background of terrorism, civil wars, and nuclear proliferation.

In the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11, people around the world -- and Europeans in particular -- came together in unprecedented demonstrations of compassion for and solidarity with the people of the United States. Since then, however, relations between Europe and America have become perilously contentious. The new unilateral and preemptive tone of U.S. foreign policy, wedded to old fears of American hegemony and an irreducible strain of anti-Americanism, have alienated and angered Europeans, even as Europe's refusal to endorse key American policies has drawn charges of ingratitude and irrelevance.

For noted French political observer Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, this growing rift dates back to the end of the cold war and poses profound dangers for the intertwined futures of America, Europe, and the world. In his new book, An Alliance at Risk, he argues that although the ties that have united Europe and America for decades remain stronger than the propagandists of a transatlantic schism would have us believe, deepening transatlantic differences foster an increasing mistrust that prevents constructive dialogue and action.

He begins by placing global anti-Americanism in historical perspective and tracing the evolution and progressive alteration of European-American relations from the postwar period to the Iraqi crisis. Stressing the need for strong transatlantic solidarity in the new global environment, Cohen-Tanugi sets forth the case and prerequisites for such cooperation, calling on Europe to assume fully its responsibilities on the world stage and on America to address the contradictions and inadequacies of its foreign policy and become more attentive to theinternational community, its sensitivities and rules. Envisioning what this renewed partnership might look like in the future, he concludes that in a world plagued by profound disorder and rabid anti-Westernism, the distance between the United States and the European Union must be bridged to propagate the democratic values they share, confront global challenges, and ensure the stability of the world.

Praise for Laurent Cohen-Tanugi's Previous Books

Le Droit sans l'Etet:

"This is the most Tocquevillian of the books on the United States written since Tocqueville, and for this very reason, the best one." -- Stanley Hoffman

"Laurent Cohen-Tanugi's Le Droit sans l'Etet must be the most profoudly pro-American essay to have come out of French intellectual milieu which has been quite favorably disposed toward the United States of late. The book's comparative analysis of the French and American judicial system may well constitute the high water mark of French liberal reconsiderations on the nature of the State, the role of civil society, and on the virtues of the American democratic model." -- Diana Pinto, author of French Politics and Society

L'Europa en Danger:

"Laurent Cohen-Tanugi's L'Europa en Danger is perhaps the best think piece in the flood of Maastricht referendum books." -- George Ross, author of French Politics and Society

"The best discussion of these issues I know of is by Laurent Cohen-Tanugi." -- Stanley Hoffman, The New York Review of Books