Within the rhetoric on transatlantic relations the consensus prevails that in order to cope with global challenges, constructive engagement and effective cooperation between the United States and its European partners is required. However, regarding actual policy-making, particularly subsequent to 9/11 and the war in Iraq, conflicting agendas and policies on both sides of the Atlantic are easily discernible. The articles in this volume deal with various societal, political, and security issues constituting frame and context of the transatlantic relationship in order to explain the contradiction between declarations and deeds and to evaluate the chances for narrowing the policy gap. Ingo Peters is associate professor of international relations at the Freie Universitat Berlin (Germany).