By Leon Bruneau
The US-led war in Iraq dowsed Europe's strong support for the United States after the September 11 attacks but the European Union has drawn important lessons since then, as its role in Lebanon shows.
Despite differences over the security force to deploy after Israel's month-long battle with Hezbollah, European countries endeavoured to speak with one voice, aware of the stakes amid a decline in US influence in the region.
The United States' regional standing has taken a battering due its unwavering support for Israel, its travails in Iraq and Iran's refusal to back down on its nuclear ambitions.
With around 7,000 troops pledged, the EU's contribution to the expanded UN mission in Lebanon will be one of its biggest operations.
It comes on top of deployments in Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and contingents pledged by individual member countries to more dangerous missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy affirmed again Monday that the decision to form the "back bone" of the UN peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) marked a turning point for Europe's still-nascent foreign and security policy.
"We began with a few hundred European soldiers and ended up with 7,300 European soldiers. The backbone of the UNIFIL force is European. This is the beginning of Europe as an entity, it is a Europe that has a face and a will to play a role," he told a conference in Berlin of German ambassadors.
"I think the lessons that some European countries have learned (from Lebanon) is that, in a situation where there is no American leadership, it's up to Europe to intervene," said Rik Coolsaet from Ghent University in Belgium.
"It is the countries that opposed the war in Iraq which are realising that Europe needs to be able to make decisions or intervene autonomously," he said, although noting that the EU consistently struggles to mount its troop missions.
Mark Leonard, at the Centre for European Reform, said that the presence of a large number of European troops would not only reinforce the EU's credibility, but could also mark the beginning of a new "strategic" role in the region.
"The EU has not behaved in a very strategic way in the past, it has not used the resources that it's put into the region toward political goals and increasing its leverage," he said from London.
"But if several members states are directly exposed and have troops on the ground, the EU will have both more credibility but will also behave in a more strategic way," he added.
Experts also acknowledge the important role played by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who bore the Union's flag in Lebanon.
For Jean-Yves Haine, at London's International Institute of StrategicStudies, the new European autonomy has come about virtually "by default".
He said it has become "a reality ... not because the Europeans wanted it that way but because the Americans were incapable of assuming" its leadership, he said.
"The Europeans found themselves all alone. That has been clearly seen in the case of Lebanon," he added.
Iran's nuclear activities, where the EU's three major powers -- Britain, France and Germany -- are at the forefront of efforts to convince the Tehran to give up uranium enrichment, also confirm Europe's strengthened diplomatic role.
Such a role would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, Haine believes, and he was encouraged by "the strength of the awareness in Europe of remaining united on this dossier."
He said that knowledge probably grew from the divisions over Iraq, which saw Germany and France oppose the war to oust former dictator Saddam Hussein, while Britain, backed by Italy and Spain, was the strongest US ally.
Once the unprecedented outpouring of solidarity caused by the suicide attacks had waned, the EU found itself in one of its worst-ever crises in 2003 once Washington decided it was going to war.
