Great article on BBC’s “Our Correspondent” website covering a recent US conference trying to see whether there was still anything in common with Europe. Apparently not:
“The West is an outdated concept,” declared one supremely self-confident senior American official at a lunch where he was the guest of honour. “And if there is still a West, then it includes Australia, Japan and South Korea. We have a global vision now” [...] Seen through American eyes, it seemed the era of fixed alliances was over.
[...]
The name of the game would be selective and loose commitments: “Like an open marriage,” said one former US official [...] “In my experience an open marriage tends to work only for one side,” [said] a British academic, “and I suspect it is the Americans who will benefit.”
When all’s said and done, there’s no real change in outlook. You’re still either with US, or against US.