With the United States and Europe behind the curve on so many fronts -- from the economic meltdown to the Arab Spring -- observers have noted that U.S. President Barack Obama hoped his trip to Europe this week would inspire a new era of U.S.-European cohesion toward solving the world's problems.
"There are a whole variety of issues that he's probably not going to solve on this trip, but he's got to lay the groundwork that we need a united front," says James Joyner, managing editor of the Atlantic Council in Washington. "At a minimum, he needs to overcome a perception that festered early his administration that Europe was on the back burner."
Joyner, who spoke with Trend Lines this morning, said the president's London speech was in part a "rallying cry" to NATO members Germany, France and Britain. But it was also meant to appeal to emerging countries in Eastern Europe, several of whom still seek NATO membership and who, Joyner added, have spent the past few years feeling alienated by the Obama's early policy of hitting the "reset button" on U.S.-Russia relations.