"A great and beautiful moment of history [...] a new hope is born." These words by Francis Wurtz, leader of the GUE-NGL group in the European Parliament, captured the joy felt across Europe when Barack Obama was elected the 44th US president. In his victory speech, Obama said: "To those who seek peace and security - we will support you". Coming on the heels of eight years of George W. Bush, a man who often seemed hell bent on making war, this was music to the ears of many. "The true strength of our nation," Obama said, "comes not from the might of our arms [...] but from the enduring power of our ideals."

With his Kenyan father, US mother, middle name Hussein, four formative years in Indonesia, much of his life spent in the ethnic melting pot of Hawaii, and his education from Harvard Law School, we can expect Obama to be more adroit in dealing with the world than his predecessor. Americans are weary of war and keen to be liked again internationally, so Obama can expect strong support at home for striking a more conciliatory tone. In many ways, his image is actually enhanced by the contrast to Bush, notes Jeffrey Anderson, author of a book on transatlantic relations. "Bush embodied everything Europeans dislike about America - arrogance, disinterest in history, bellicosity, no understanding of nuance, anti-intellectual. Obama is the opposite of all this, so that he got elected redeems American society in European eyes," Anderson says.

STILL MORE MILITARY PRONE 

But despite the more melodious mood music, the US continues to see the world through the prism of 9/11 (11 September 2001 terrorist attacks), whereas Europe sees it more through the prism of 11/9 (the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989). So while Obama may instinctively be more peace-oriented than Bush, his administration is also likely to be more threat-conscious and prone to use military force than Europe, which could spell trouble for transatlantic relations. 

The first test case will be Afghanistan. While Obama firmly opposed the Iraq war and will withdraw US troops from there as soon as he can, he is considering redeploying many of them to Afghanistan, where 31,000 US troops are trying, along with their NATO allies, to defeat Al Qaeda and establish law, order and democracy. Obama may get support domestically for a troop surge in Afghanistan, although this is not yet clear. However, European countries with a presence in Afghanistan are facing growing opposition at home to continuing the campaign. Some believe Afghanistan, with its vast, rugged terrain and diverse bands of warriors with allegiances to clans and ideologies rather than to a central government, is simply untameable. "Seventy percent of the German public does not want their troops there," notes Karen Donfried, policy analyst at the German Marshall Fund in Washington.

STILL PRO-ISRAEL 

Thus, while on the whole the EU should look forward to brighter days ahead in its dealings with Washington, they will probably not be as bright as many think. US foreign policy in a raft of areas will hardly change at all in substance. For example, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama is likely to remain solidly tilted towards Israel's side, although he might just prove more skilful in facilitating a peace deal than Bush who, one can easily forget, theoretically did support an independent Palestinian state. Obama's top negotiator will be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Her experience in helping bring peace to Northern Ireland in the 1990s, during her husband Bill Clinton's tenure in the White House, should prove helpful. But she also comes with a big handicap: Arab nations distrust her as they feel she is too pro-Israeli.  

Looking to Iran, Obama's commitment to engaging with Tehran directly should make life easier for the EU, which will not always be having to mediate between the two adversaries. With Russia, we can expect Obama to be less trusting of Moscow than Bush initially was. Hillary Clinton has already said, for example, she wants to help make Europe more independent of Russian energy. On Georgia and Ukraine, the cautious-minded Obama is unlikely to push for their NATO or EU membership as aggressively as Bush did. Similarly, on Russia's efforts to prevent the US installing a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic, one can expect Obama to take his foot off the accelerator slightly on the project. Looking to the Visa Waiver Programme, five EU countries - Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece - are still not part of the club. While Obama is not expected to impede their addition, neither will he probably push this issue as strongly as Bush did.

BIG DOMESTIC AGENDA 

Obama will be devoting a huge portion of his energies to domestic policies, specifically to creating jobs, slashing his country's massive trade and budget deficit, and reforming its health care system. So while he is genuinely committed to signing a new global climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, and to setting up a US cap and trade system to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the bitter economic climate in the US will make this task easier said than done. In particular, getting the necessary two thirds of US senators to agree to ratify any future treaty will be close to impossible if such a treaty does not require China and India to cut their emissions too. On the ongoing global initiative to reform how the world's financial markets are regulated, triggered by last autumn's near meltdown of the banking system, Obama has given signs that he is more favourably disposed than Bush to global regulation.