One of the unintended consequences of the American obsession with Iraq is that it has raised the question of Europe in striking and unexpected ways. It has been said that the U.S. relationship with Europe will not be the same after the Iraq experience. In a similar and connected sense, it would seem that Europe's relationship with itself will never again be the same. The concept of Europe is itself enigmatic. There has always been a Europe, in the simplest geographic sense. Within that Europe has been embedded an extraordinary paradox: European states, taken together, not only conquered most of the world, but actually invented it. Before the European imperial adventure, the world was divided into sequestered universes — the Aztecs did not know of the Islamic world; the Chinese did not know the Norwegians.