Surviving Turbulence in Transatlantic Relations Review by Johan Eliasson Department of Political Science, East Stroudsburg University Divided West: European Security and the Transatlantic Relationship. By Tuomas Forsberg and Graeme P. Herd. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 200 pp., $84.95 cloth (ISBN: 1-4051- 3042-3), $34.95 (ISBN: 1-4051-3041-5). Policymakers and scholars alike generally agree that European–US relations are changing. However, it is unclear whether recent conflicts over military interven- tion and trade policies have led to irreconcilable differences in transatlantic rela- tions that will overwhelm longstanding and deep social, cultural, economic, and political ties. Depending on one’s professional occupation or ideological per- spective, the answer can be ‘‘yes,’’ ‘‘no,’’ or ‘‘maybe.’’ In Divided West: European Security and the Transatlantic Relationship, Tuomas Forsberg and Graeme Herd—two scholars with extensive knowledge of European integration and US–European relations—provide an incisive yet thought provok- ing analysis of recent developments. Europe and the United States, they argue, are engaged in neither a strategic realignment nor a divorce. Rather, recent dis- agreements represent a ‘‘constructive strategic dissonance’’ in which seeming instability, half-way policy approaches, and half-cocked military operations coexist with continuous, and strategically coherent, interest-based policies (pp. 2ff). Fors- berg and Herd identify five different ‘‘Europes:’’ Core Europe (Germany and supportive continental states), Atlantic Europe (predominantly Britain, but also Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal), Non-Aligned Europe (Austria, Ireland, Finland, and Sweden), New Europe (the ten states that joined the European Union in 2004), and Periphery Europe (Russia, Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine). They then examine the objectives and policy preferences of each of these Europes within a changing transatlantic relationship. In their quest to ‘‘systematize and deepen our understanding of different explanations given to the crisis in transatlantic relations in the hope that ‘noth- ing is as practical as a good theory’’’ (p. 17), Forsberg and Herd cite ample empirical evidence to present and explain the dominant schools of thought: real- ism, liberalism, and constructivism. The effort is admirable given that many aca- demic texts tend to be overly theoretical and short on empirical evidence. It is also useful given that much policy writing falls short on holistic explanations and generalizable inferences. Chapter 2 can serve as a stand-alone introduction for any introductory international relations course. The chapter on ‘‘Atlanticist Europe’’ focuses on the historic ‘‘special rela- tionship’’ between the United Kingdom and the United States. Intriguingly, it shows that Tony Blair’s personal friendships with Bill Clinton and George Bush and British support for the Iraq war have failed to halt Britain’s diminishing clout in Washington. Britain is now said to be drawing the short end of the partnership stick, and, given a more assertive European Union, ‘‘the UK’s role as Transatlantic broker will become more ambiguous and pivotal, and the risks of becoming a continual casualty in transatlantic traffic will only increase’’ (p. 51). Yet, Forsberg and Herd’s gloomy assessment tends to overshadow many positive developments stemming from the establishment of the European Ó 2007 International Studies Review. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ , UK . International Studies Review (2007) 9, 272–274