Looking For A Vision; Both America and Europe are searching for common ground again--and they may have found it in what some are calling the 'Greater Middle East'.(foreign relations)

Byline: William Drozdiak, Drozdiak is director of the Transatlantic Center at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels.

Is the transatlantic relationship dead? Amid the rubble of the Iraq war, it often seemed so. Yet that near-fatal fracture now seems to have given fresh purpose and cohesion to what is arguably the most successful partnership in world history.

Determined to repair their ruptured ties, Europe and the United States are looking to embrace an ambitious new vision--a common challenge big enough to reignite a sense of shared mission between them. The one they've chosen: nothing less than the wholesale modernization of the swath of territory from Morocco to Afghanistan that the allies have taken to calling the Greater Middle East. If all goes according to plan, senior U.S. and European officials say, the details of this sweeping effort will be unveiled at a "triple crown" of summits this June involving the United States and the European Union, the Group of Eight industrial democracies and the 26 current and new members of NATO. Whether all sides are prepared to make the sacrifices needed to transform this grand scheme into more than a talking point remains to be seen. But at this point, even talking counts as progress.

The allies' sudden interest in collaboration, after so many months of tension, reflects a new appreciation of their shared vulnerability. As it expands to 25 nations and 450 million citizens this May, the European Union wields global economic clout--yet also senses greater exposure to terrorism, failed states, weapons of mass destruction and Islamic extremism. At their latest meeting in December, EU leaders endorsed a joint security strategy that cited terrorist groups acquiring materials or weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East as "the most frightening scenario" threatening their countries.

For its part, Washington has come to recognize that American troops cannot carry the burden alone in Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone other hot spots in the Middle East. President George W. Bush faces a tough re-election campaign, with Democrats accusing him of squandering the sympathies of America's traditional allies--not to mention billions in taxpayer money. He's eager to prove them wrong by coaxing the Europeans to contribute troops to peacekeeping missions currently dominated by America, and to lend their diplomatic muscle to conflicts Washington has not been able to resolve on its own.

The ambition of the evolving transatlantic initiative is truly breathtaking. It seeks to overhaul dysfunctional political, economic, social and legal systems in a vast arc of countries, where half of the population is under 18 years of age and one in five people live on less than $2 a day. The scheme calls for an unprecedented collaboration between NATO and the European Union. Under the emerging division of labor, NATO would offer countries in the region new forms of military cooperation, including training for peacekeeping missions, ...