Previous transatlantic clashes over diverse issues such as climate change, the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, and the Iraq War exposed a breakdown of mutual understanding, sometimes stemming from sharp differences over how best to achieve certain common objectives. But the wiretapping crisis and other troubling revelations from the former American intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden point to a deeper problem: a crisis of mutual distrust that risks becoming a serious transatlantic rift at a time when closer political, economic, and security cooperation between Europe and the United States is needed more than ever.
此前，大西洋两岸在气候变化、关塔那摩监狱囚犯和伊拉克战争等诸多问题上的分歧暴露了互相理解方面的裂痕，有时候，分歧来自关于如何达到某些共同目标这一问题上的尖锐不同。但窃听危机和前美国情报承包商斯诺登所揭露的其他丑闻指向一个更深层次的问题：互相信任危机。目前正是欧洲和美国之间最需要更紧密地进行政治，经济和安全合作的时候，互相信任危机有可能导致大西洋两岸的严重决裂。