It's Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Today, I want to bring you something of a report from Europe, and in particular, I want to focus on the big concern over here,

and that is the ongoing relationship between the United States and Europe and the question of what's going on in both

places. We'll put the emphasis on Europe. Mark Maysauer wrote a really interesting piece

for the Financial Times over the weekend. It was entitled The End of the Affair. His point is

that Europeans are beginning

to rethink their fundamental relationship with the United States of America. Maysauer is a professor

at Columbia University. I think it's important to understand that he gives a very good historical

background to this analysis. I'm going to disagree with some of the places he goes from there, but when

it comes to the historical analysis, I think he's basically spot on. In the early American period,

of course, it was Europe that held the big cards. It was Europe that had the power. It was Europe

that set most of the cultural agenda. But all that began to shift even in the 19th century.

And by the time you get to the 20th century, American dominance becomes increasingly clear.

That's something very hard for Europe to take.

But Maysauer points out that in the 19th century, there was this giant shift.

And in particular, when you think about the relationship with the United States

on the part of nations

like England and France and Spain. Those were imperial nations. They were committed to colonialism,

the rise of the United States, and also the fact that these imperial powers had to withdraw from

most of what became defined as the new world. This led to a situation in which, over time,

what happened in the United States began to set the pace for what would happen in Europe,

or at least it was a matter of European fascination. As Maysauer writes about the 19th century,

...