The split between some European nations and the United States about possible war with Iraq probably isn’t a permanent divide.

That was the conclusion of four experts on European politics and history who spoke at a forum Tuesday at Kansas University.

“It’s not necessarily true that U.S.-European relations are in a crisis we can’t get out of,” said Michael Mosser, professor of European studies.

Mosser was one of four panelists who spoke at a forum in Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union organized by KU’s Center for European Studies. About 175 people attended the event.

Jonathan Clark, visiting professor of history from Great Britain, noted there were large divisions within Europe about the war issue, not just between European nations and the United States.

“Europe is still chiefly a geographical expression and not a political reality,” he said.

Carl Strikwerda, professor of history, said U.S. criticism that the French were always opposed to military action was incorrect, citing their involvement in Western Africa, Lebanon, Bosnia-Kosovo and Afghanistan.

“The French are not opposed to intervening,” he said. “They’ve done so before, usually with U.S. support.”

Rather, he said, French government officials want what many across Europe and even the United States want.

“I don’t think the French criticism of the Bush policy is so extraordinary — that we only go as a last resort, and we only go in with the U.N.,” Strikwerda said.

He added: “I don’t think it’s a deep crisis unless the U.S. policy makes it a deep crisis. The Bush policy has risked turning around 50 years of relations with France. I don’t think it’s worth throwing away over an issue that seems risky.”

Juliet Kaarbo, associate professor of political science, said she thought Germany had done more to cement opposition to U.S. military action in Iraq than France, because German’s resistance came earlier in the discussions.

She said she thought political party pressures had done more to sway Germany’s opposition to war than any other factor.

“I don’t think there’s a crisis in U.S.-German relations,” she said. “The source of this disagreement is German politics. It is not a crisis in that Germany is trying to influence world politics. It is not a crisis in terms of fundamental differences between Germany and the United States.”