My old friend Mick Cox, professor at the LSE, sends this letter with his mid-summer reflections on the zeitgeist in Berlin, London, and Brussels:

What a summer in Europe! No constitutional crises. No transatlantic spats (we’re all friend now don’t you know). Not even a riot or two in France to keep us entertained. Just soccer, soccer and more soccer! Even the USA joined in this time. And what a world cup it was that saw Latin pride severely dented (out went Argentina and Brazil in the semi-finals) and German pride restored (even though they went out in the semi-finals too). For one brought up on a daily diet of World War II films these were extraordinary and uplifting moments. German flags everywhere. Loud singing of the national anthem. A cup final played in the same stadium as the notorious 1936 Olympics. And not a harsh word said by anyone. The war is finally over.

Even the normally beastly Brits smiled and kept drinking – probably wishing they had a German manager too. But at least it helped take their minds off the one year commemoration of 7/7: a sombre day in London to be sure.

In France meanwhile all the talk has been about that ‘head butt’ by soccer hero Zinedine, a kid from a poor Algerian background who has come to symbolize French policy – warts and all – towards their seven million Muslim citizens. One thing you couldn’t be of Zinedine after the event was critical. Chirac nearly (though not quite) managed to embarass himself by embracing the great player the day after "le butt" and prior to an official dinner for the whole French team.‘Had to be anti-Arab racism’ most of the French press insisted without knowing. In fact, it turned out to be some fairly earthy things said about his mother and sister by his ‘uncultured’ Italian opponent – the Italians’ words not Zidane’s.

While France reflected and Germany experienced an unexpected boost to its collective morale -- who said Angela Merkel had no charisma -- the polls kept churning out their daily diet of useless and sometimes useful facts. One though caught the imagination and indeed the headlines in the UK. YouGov, a well respected outfit that does these thing better than most, published some rather alarming findings in early July about British opinion about Bush and America. So bad were they that even the US Embassy was compelled to respond. To little effect it appears. Bush, according to the survey, was completely hopeless, rated very highly by only 1% of those polled. Nor did the United States come off especially well, with most believing the US was less interested in democracy than oil, and around the same number assuming it was more a force for instability than stability in the Middle East – a view confirmed in many eyes when American officials refused to criticize Israeli actions in Gaza a few days later and used its veto in the UN to block any move against its special (possibly only real) friend in the region. American readers will not be surprised to discover that there are few in Britain at least who can find very much wrong with the Mearsheimer-Walt critique of US Israel policy.

Dark days for Bush abroad no doubt. Increasingly tough ones too for his last remaining international friend, Tony Blair. Indeed, while the Israeli tanks rolled and the planes bombed, Blair avoided any words that could be misconstrued as criticism of what most assumed was collective punishment of the Palestinian people for having had the nerve to vote for Hamas. Little wonder that many British Muslims think the British and the Americans have double standards when it comes to the Middle East. Blair though has more to worry about than Gaza. UK troop levels are going up once again in Afghanistan (taking us up to 7 or 8 thousand NATO troops overall) and all the talk I hear around Europe – including most recently from a very senior official close to NATO - is of escalation, more losses, and early signs that we are losing the ‘battle for hearts and minds’ there (having already lost it In Iraq). But few in Europe now think this has very much to do with the United States. As a leading politician noted sardonically after our second glass of champagne on a warm balmy evening in West London, ‘bloody Americans no longer think they’re part of NATO’.

Iraq of course remains the Rubicon still dividing the British and the Americans from nearly everybody else. The official UK view – sounding not unlike the official American view – was best expressed at a seminar I recently attended at a leading Think Tank in London. I paraphrase, but accurately. On the ground in Iraq, the official admitted, the situation is bad and getting worse. The Iraqi state barely functions – though the army has chalked up some successes. The police meantime are riddled with informers and Shi’ia sectarians. The insurgency shows no signs of abating. The Iraqi economy is falling apart. There has been no recovery. Oil revenues have more or less dried up. Thousands are being slaughtered in what is by any other name a civil war. But we cannot fail and we certainly cannot leave. All hell would break out if we did, and we would pay an even higher price in the future than we are paying already. Everybody was too polite – or stunned – to disagree or mention Nixon, 1972 or peace with honour.

Over to Brussels finally on the 13th July where I was asked to give evidence to the European Parliament about the future of ESDP – ‘ES what’ I hear you all exclaiming. To give it its full name the European Security and Defence Policy, pushed by Blair and Chirac in the heady days of that little and all too brief Entente Cordiale back at St Malo in 1998. A ‘paper tiger’ according to most Americans. A waste of time say others. A dangerous rival to NATO according to the ever pro-European Wall Street Journal. Actually wrong on all counts. At last the Europeans are beginning to walk the walk -- in Bosnia where there are over six thousand EU troops on the ground, in Congo where there are well over a thousand more keeping the peace, and in a variety of other trouble spots around the world. Serious military planning is also beginning to take place, and few (even the wary French) appear to have many problems in working with NATO where necessary, especially now that the US seems to find the four lettered organization so boring. If you are looking for Kagan’s Venus, you won’t find it in Europe these days.

Professor Michael Cox taching in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics where he is also Director of the Cold War Studies Centre.