ITHACA, N.Y. -- Academic conferences are by their nature ephemeral. Scholars gather, create an intellectual hothouse for a day or more, trade ideas and then disperse. While presenters often revise materials for future publication on their own, it is uncommon to see an entire conference collected and published in book form.

Position papers from an international conference held at Cornell University in the spring of 2004, "Inevitable Alliance? European-American Relations After the Iraq Invasion," have been revised and reintroduced as a book: "Partner of Rivals? European-American Relations After Iraq" (2005 Vita e Pensiero, Milano, distributed by Cornell University Press).

The book is co-edited by Matthew Evangelista, Cornell professor of government and director of the Peace Studies Program, and Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, associate professor of International Relations at the Catholic University in Milan. At least 10 Cornell faculty and graduate students who participated in the conference are represented among a host of international scholars. 

"Partners or Rivals?" examines the state of European-American relations in the wake of the Iraq War that began in 2003. Authors take a long view of the evolution of European-American relations rather than limit their analyses to day-to-day recriminations over the wisdom of launching an invasion that split the NATO alliance.

The contributors address questions about the future role of the United States in NATO, whether a coherent European Union could emerge as a challenger to that alliance, and what part Russia is likely to play. The main chapters -- revisions of papers presented at the conference -- treat the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States, the significance of the former Soviet-bloc countries of the "New Europe," transnational peace activism, terrorism, organized crime and the politics of the European monetary union. The book includes a series of brief, insightful commentaries responding to the chapters, making connections among them and raising questions for further research.

Evangelista says that while some changes have taken place in Europe since April 2004, such as the rejection by France and the Netherlands of the proposed constitution for Europe, those developments have more to do with the European Union itself than Europe's relation to the United States.

"On the whole, I think the volume stands up reasonably well in light of these developments," he says, "because it was intended to illustrate competing theoretical perspectives on U.S.-European relations rather than make specific predictions."

Although none of the authors anticipated that the momentum toward greater political unification of Europe would be slowed in that way, two authors did anticipate that European economic integration would encounter some difficulties.

"The threat to ratification of a European constitution has also contributed somewhat to a different stance on the part of the newest EU members from east and central Europe," Evangelista adds. "Although many countries of the 'new Europe' sided with the United States in the Iraq War, they have, in some respects, returned to the fold now that they realize they cannot take a robust European Union for granted. Countries such as Poland, for example, offered concessions to the members of the 'old Europe' on issues such as financial subsidies in order to convince them not to reject the proposed constitution."

Evangelista is the author of "Unarmed Forces: The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War" (also from Cornell), winner of the Marshall Shulman Book Prize and the Jervis-Schroeder Prize.