Recently, while buying a few trinkets at a roadside souvenir stall near the ancient ruins of Petra in Jordan, this reporter pulled out a wallet stuffed with dollars. Generally, US dollars are a much-sought hard currency in most parts of the world. “Oh, no, I don't want any dollars,” the souvenir man said. “Can you please pay me in euros?” This salesman, like so many others, no longer considers the greenback the de facto currency of the globe. The reality is that the dollar has been dwindling in value for years. But does disenchantment with the dollar - which once afforded Americans a uniquely privileged position in the world - portend a decline in US influence, too? Over the past year, media reports have cited a strengthening euro as a sign that European clout is on the rise and a weakening dollar as a sign that American power is waning. America, analysts have said, is hamstrung by a shaky economy, a lame duck president, and a failed policy in Iraq. Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, told the International Herald Tribune recently that whoever succeeds President Bush may restore something of the United States' battered image overseas but that “the magic is over.” He said the United States may recover some of its standing but that “it will never be as it was before.” To be sure, the dollar has been slipping precipitously since 2002. Back then a euro was worth 86 cents. Today it buys about $1.55. And along with a strengthening euro has come a 27-member European Union increasingly seeking to challenge US hegemony. Europe has taken the lead in efforts to negotiate an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. An increasing confidence also is underpinning the EU's position at the negotiating table. The European Commission, the executive branch of EU governance, has asserted its right to take action over bilateral agreements signed by individual EU nations with the United States. Washington has been making separate visa deals with some EU nations over the objections of EU officials who want to negotiate a visa waiver pact for the complete bloc. A stronger, cohesive Europe is in a better position to bargain as the EU and the U.S. begin a new round of talks over Washington's demands that EU nations meet new travel security measures in exchange for visa-free entry into the United States. Even so, Europe's rise on the back of America's downward spiral may be exaggerated. Europe, after all, is a region that's hardly maintained cohesion as it struggles with its own economic woes. EU officials recently predicted that the euro area's economic growth would slow to 1.8 percent this year as the region fights record-high inflation and a strong currency that's eroding profits and making exports to the United States more expensive. “The ripple effects of the US mortgage crisis and the problematic housing markets in Spain and other European countries are good indicators that the EU is heading towards a larger crisis,” said Sam Cherribi, a senior lecturer in sociology at Emory University in Atlanta and a former Dutch parliament member. “The US has mechanisms in place to recover more quickly than Europe. “And American companies are amazing,” he said. “They can rebound quickly. No European company can do that.” Established in 1993, the EU has made great strides towards cementing 27 disparate nations into one bloc, representing 450 million people. The Balkan wars in the 1990s spurred Europeans to step up development of joint structures on foreign and defense affairs. And progress has been made on streamlining Brussels' often-complex decision-making processes. But Europe's internal divisions over the Iraq war and other issues have failed to inspire a great deal of confidence. A proposed European Constitution was to have come into force in 2006, but it was shelved after being rejected by French and Dutch voters. In its place, EU leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty last December, designed to deepen cooperation among members. But people in Britain, for example, are divided over whether the Lisbon Treaty should be ratified and a sizeable minority is still unsure whether Britain should even stay part of the EU. The treaty - which must be ratified this year by all 27 EU members - would create the EU's first full-time president. That alone, some analysts say, could give Europe an important counter to America in projecting global power. According to many critics, the EU has for too long been a body with too many heads. As David Hull, an attorney originally from Atlanta who now practices law in Brussels, put it: “There's been a problem that was first identified by Henry Kissinger in his famous quip: ‘I don't know who to call when I want to call Europe.'” __
