Europe Still Likes Obama, but Doubts Creep In

By STEVEN ERLANGER
NYT

MARRAKESH, Morocco — The election of Barack Obama as president seemed to most Europeans to be unadulterated good news, marking an end to the perceived unilateralism and indifference to allied views of former President George W. Bush.

But nine months into Mr. Obama’s presidency, trans-Atlantic relations are again clouded by doubts. Europe and the United States remain at least partly out of sync on Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and climate change.

Many Europeans argue that Mr. Obama has not broken clearly enough with Bush administration policies that they dislike, while some Americans argue that the Europeans are too passive, watching Mr. Obama struggle with difficult issues, like Afghanistan and the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, without providing much substantive help.

Many of these concerns will be central to the United States-European Union meeting in Washington beginning Tuesday that Mr. Obama will lead, and they were the subject of debate at a World Policy Conference run by the French Institute of International Relations in Marrakesh over the weekend.

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