By Timothy Garton Ash 

Illustration by Thomas Fuchs

Where Europe is concerned, the next U.S. president will have one immense advantage: not being George W. Bush. But that's about the only advantage he or she will enjoy, for the new administration will take office facing one of the biggest gulfs in transatlantic relations since 1945. Never in recent history—not during the massive row over deploying U.S. nuclear missiles in Europe in the 1980s, nor even during the worst days of the Vietnam War—has U.S. leadership been so little respected and trusted there.

Even in the most traditionally pro-American countries, surveys show a precipitous decline in U.S. standing. In Britain, according to a Pew poll, favorable opinion of the United States dropped from 83 percent in 2000 to 56 percent last year, and in Germany, the figure slid from 78 to just 37. Trust in Washington has also hit a record low. According to a survey for the German Marshall Fund, only 36 percent of Europeans now see U.S. leadership as desirable at all. In 2002, that figure was still 64 percent. Asked to name the main reasons for the decline, 34 percent said President Bush himself and 38 percent blamed the war in Iraq.

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