Study of the essay "Power and Weakness" by Robert KaganRobert Kagan, American neoconservative scholar and political commentator created an international sensation in 2002 with his essay "Power and Weakness", which he later expanded in a bestselling book called Of Paradise and Power. His essay announced that "Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus." Here is a summary of his essay and the different phases of his analysis of the deterioration of US-European relations. According to Kagan, a new phase in the relationship between the United States and Europe has begun. In fact, Europe hides from power by going beyond laws and rules, while the United States uses power because laws are not reliable enough. This translates into a difference in the way foreign policy is conducted. The United States is less patient with diplomacy; they want to solve problems quickly. This leads to unilateralism in international affairs. Europeans are more tolerant and prefer negotiation and diplomacy. They use economic ties to unite nations. What is the source of these different strategic perspectives? For Europeans, peaceful strategic culture is quite new. Power changed 200 years ago when the US was weak and practiced indirect strategies, now that the US is powerful it behaves as powerful nations do and European countries see the world through the eyes of weaker powers. Power Gap: Perception and Reality Europe has been militarily weak since World War II, but remained unnoticed due to the unique geopolitical context of the Cold War: it was the strategic linchpin between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the "new Europe", in the 90s, everyone agreed on the fact that Europe will put... at the center of the paper... the evolution of this dichotomy, explaining how Europe and America have always played roles opposites. as Kagan points out, it is economically strong but militarily weak, while the United States is strong on both fronts. How to solve the world's problems is viewed very differently, therefore, depending on whether you are negotiating on the basis of strength or weakness. Clearly the divide between Europeans and Americans is deeper than many think, and both sides have some serious issues to discuss. But do Europe and the United States really have different agendas that are destined to clash more and more times in the future? Finally, “The obvious answer is that Europe should… and strengthen its armed forces, even if only marginally,” leaves me with a mystery. Kagan is perhaps implying that Europe has no military power or wants to start a new military race?